CEFC China Energy recently made headlines following a New York Post exposè highlighting how Hunter Biden leveraged his father’s name to ink deals with the Chinese government-linked entity.
The article – ‘Emails reveal how Hunter Biden tried to cash in big on behalf of family with Chinese firm’ – also outlines how Joe Biden may have benefitted financially from the deal.
The company, founded by the now-missing Chinese tycoon Ye Jianming, has been identified as collaborating with the Chinese Communist Party’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) since its founding.
CEFC’s PLA ties come through Ye. Even CNN acknowledges it:
“For years, rumors had circulated in China that Ye was a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) princeling […] Onlookers theorized that Ye Jianming’s grandfather was a high-ranking Communist Party official called Ye Jianying. A biography of the younger Ye in a 2012 financial report seemed to support claims of high-level PLA ties. It states that from 2003 until 2005 he was the deputy secretary general of the China Association for International Friendly Contact (CAIFC). That group is a purported political arm of the Chinese military, according to a report by the Project 2049 Institute, a US-based organization that researches Asia security issues. Stylistic similarities between the CEFC China Energy and CAIFC logos did nothing to dispel the idea that Ye was linked to the military.”
What’s more, the Wall Street Journal noted the company was a supplier of the PLA in 2018:
“The company reports over $40 billion in annual revenue including Middle East oil production, financial holdings in Central Europe, trading in Singapore and oil storage depots for China’s strategic national reserve. A person with knowledge of the situation said CEFC supplies the People’s Liberation Army.”
Despite these ties, Hunter Biden identifies himself, “unequivocally with no room for different opinions or interpretation” as a Manging Director of CEFC.
“I am the managing director of CEFC. I have complete authority as to who I hire and who I fire. I have only employees that work for me in DC,” the former veep’s son wrote.
Hunter Biden continued: “I am not in a JV with CEFC. I am not partners with CEFC. I am not employed or funded by CEFC. My expenses will not be reviewed by any CEFC employee. The President of CEFC has no right reason nor ability to terminate HW3.”
The email thread, which contains Mervyn Yan, the Chinese Communist Party-linked GongWen Dong, and Joe Biden’s brother Jim, alludes a dispute over money owed to Hunter Biden from “Mervyn and Kevin.”
In full, the email thread entitled “RSA Expenses June-Dec 2017.numbers” reads:
Mervyn and Kevin,
The house of Sweden is my D.C. Office space. It will be reimbursed. As for a Cefc accountant going over my expense report I will personally sue you Kevin and the accountant if you forward my expense to them.
I am sorry to be so direct but for the final time I am not In Business with CEFC. I have never been a partner with nor an affiliate of CEFC.
I am amazed that my fellow board members do not see the inherent conflict such an arrangement if true would create for the chairman and Mervyn and Kevin and Jaqi personally.
Under US law if the Chairman and equity holder of a corporation partnered with a US LLC (Owasco) through ownership of his wholly owned US llc (Hudson West) was in reality and practice using CEFC employees and money to operate a privately held company there would be an enormous conflict of interest.
The notion that you and Kevin and Jackie are insisting that such an illegal scheme is in fact your understanding of how this company is organized – well then I would say in light of the ongoing investigation you should not be surprised by warrant being issued related to this.
That is why I am stating unequivocally with no room for no different opinions or interpretation – I am not in a JV with CEFC. I am not partners with CEFC. I am not employed or funded by CEFC.
My expenses will not be reviewed by any CEFC employee. The President of CEFC has no right reason nor ability to terminate HW3.
I am the managing director of CEFC. I have complete authority as to who I hire and who I fire. I have only employees that work for me in DC.
Reimbursement of expenses is not a matter for the board. The decision lies with the managing director alone.
If you refuse to sign the wire Kevin I will seek to have you removed from the board for unjust obstruction of equity holder rights. I am the only equity holder on the board. I will bring suit in the Chancery Court in Delaware- which as you know is my home state and I am privileged to have worked with and know every judge on the chancery court.
Because the chairman is unavailable and his equity according to you has been transferred to the president ( in direct violation of the LLC agreement I am certin [sic] the court will issue subpoenas for both the president and the chairman and if they refuse to comply the court will seek to “pierce the corporate veil” of CEFC through any of its remaining holdings in the US.
I could go on but I don’t think it necessary.
All expenses submitted will be reviewed for any obvious error in the moment and a accountant hired by HW3 will review when preparing HW3 taxes.
Thank you in advance for your cooperation. If my expenses as submitted are not wired into the Owasco account today I will file an injunction to freeze all HW account at Cathay Pacific and simultaneously seek a determination of control of HW3.
My fellow board members – your insistence on control of my capital in my account for my company is counter productive in the extreme. Your insistence on control by an entity that has no legal connection to HW3 by contract or any verbal agreement will be the single biggest reason you will become even more entangled in issues that will swallow your careers for the next ten years.
Sincerely,
R. Hunter Biden
Managing Director
Partner and
50% Equity Owner
Roughly an hour after this email was sent, Jim Biden followed up with a correction to a typo included in the previous email. He also appears to “insist that the mo draw of 165,000 be up to date and current”:
I would also insist that the mo draw of 165,000 be up to date and current! They have done us great harm, monkey island was a deal that your partner had said we were moving forward on. We are completely in the dark.
One day prior, Mervyn Yan emailed Hunter Biden individually requesting the “third expenses report.” Yan also adds that “a lot of things were not HW3 business related, like house in Sweden,” referencing Hudson West III which was owned by Hunter Biden’s Owasco law firm.
Gongwen Dong’s response to Jim’s email counters Jim Biden’s claims
about the numbers included on the expense report. The email also
reveals that Jim Biden had been “reimbursed more than $220,000 for
July to September expenses”:
Dong follows up again insisting that the Biden couldn’t sue “for not paying incorrect expenses,” also emphasizing they “have no interest in the company”:
