Hunter Biden reached a $40 million real estate deal in 2012 with Russian billionaire and wife of the former mayor of Moscow, Yelena Baturina, while President Joe Biden was vice president.
The massive deal is connected to a previously reported $3.5 million fee Baturina paid Hunter’s real estate entity to access the American business market, the Daily Mail reported Monday from documents obtained by an anti-corruption group, the Kazakhstani Initiative on Asset Recovery.
The $40 million real estate deal was structured as a part of a pooled real estate fund to be allocated into long-term investments Hunter identified as profitable in the United States. Such investment vehicles are common among sophisticated investors and experienced fund managers. Due to the complexity of a fund’s transactions, the entity is often subject to stringent disclosures with government oversight agencies.
Hunter’s overall acquisition plan included acquiring seven office buildings throughout Texas, Colorado, Alabama, New Mexico, and Oklahoma with $52 million in cash and $160 million in leverage, the Daily Mail reported. Hunter’s real estate fund, Rosemont Realty, had apparently raised a total of $69.7 million to invest into 2.15 million square feet of office space.
Hunter’s firm put $15 million of its own money inside the fund. It is unknown where Hunter’s business firm attained such a large sum to invest within the complex investment scheme.
EXCLUSIVE: Leaked emails reveal Hunter Biden's real estate company received a $40MILLION investment from Russian oligarch https://t.co/lxcijUJG7f
— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) October 17, 2022
The $40 million Baturina invested into the fund reportedly flowed from a Swiss company she owned named Inteco Management AG, which is a plastics and construction giant that made Baturina a Russian oligarch and the richest woman in Russia in 2012, Forbes reported.
“Rosemont Realty has entered into property acquisition contracts for $212,580,000,” Hunter’s prospectus read, according to screenshots given to the Kazakhstani Initiative on Asset Recovery via Baturina’s brother Kenes Rakishev, who is a connected Kazakh businessman and partner of Hunter’s.
In 2015, Rakishev was photographed with Hunter and then-Vice President Joe Biden at Cafe Milano in Washington, DC, one of the 17 instances Joe Biden has been involved in the Biden family business:
Breaking: this photo appears to have been taken at Cafe Milano showing then VP Joe Biden with two Kazakhstani guests from Hunter's 2015 dinner to introduce his clients to dad. L-R – oligarch Kenes Rakishev, Hunter, Joe, PM Karim Massimov https://t.co/ywWPhL3T3f pic.twitter.com/WO5xAVOH02
— Miranda Devine (@mirandadevine) May 28, 2021
“The Managing Partnership will receive a total investment of $69,700,000 from the partners” a Russian translation of the prospectus read. “The Managing General Partner will invest at least $15,000,000 of share capital on the same terms as all partners in the Investment Partnership.”
The fresh reporting of a Biden family business venture during the time Joe Biden was vice president raises questions of whether or not Hunter was selling influence to the White House in order to obtain such a large amount of infused cash. Such complicated investment schemes are typically performed by experienced fund managers and with investors who feel comfortable with the fund managers’ experience and historic returns.
Two years after the real estate deal, in 2014, Baturina was living in the United Kingdom with her late husband Yuri Luzhkov, a one-time mayor of Moscow, who was accused of real estate corruption, Breitbart News reported:
Baturina and her husband immigrated to Great Britain in 2011 after Luzhkov was dismissed from public office by former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev as part of a public corruption probe. The former mayor, in particular, was accused of using his office to approve more than 20 real estate projects linked to Baturina’s business interests, according to the Homeland Security Committee.
Hunter received a $3.5 million wire transfer in 2014 from Baturina, according to a 2020 report by Senate Republicans, who revealed her involvement with Hunter was “a financial relationship,” though no further explanation of the payment to Hunter was given.
Hunter’s real estate venture was occurring while Hunter sat on the board of Burisma and reportedly collected $80,000 a month, while Joe Biden was vice president. It was cut in half after Joe Biden left office.
Story cited here.
