A Senate probe highlighted links between
Hunter's Chinese backers and the country's spy machine, and reported
that his dealings with the Chinese 'raise criminal financial,
counterintelligence and extortion concerns'.
But it is still unclear whether Bao was
aware of Hunter's partner's alleged links to the intelligence services
at the time – as the New York-based clerical worker has not responded to
multiple requests for comment.
Hunter
and Joe Biden's brother Jim partnered with CEFC in 2017, in a deal that
was meant to generate billions of dollars and create a string of oil and
gas projects in the Middle East and Europe.
But
the joint venture collapsed the following year when CEFC's secretary
general Patrick Ho was arrested and later convicted of bribery in a US
federal prosecution.
Ho was suspected
of working with the Chinese intelligence services, and had been
monitored by federal law enforcement under the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act, court documents revealed.
The
Senate homeland security and finance committees issued a joint report
in September 2020 scrutinizing Hunter's business deal with CEFC, noting
the company's deep ties to the Chinese government and concluding that
the millions of dollars transferred from the firm to Hunter and his
uncle 'raise criminal financial, counterintelligence and extortion
concerns.'
In November, then finance
committee chair Senator Chuck Grassley wrote to the Department of
Justice, demanding an investigation into Hunter's business dealings with
his corrupt foreign billionaire backers.
The
president's son admitted in December last year that he is currently the
subject of an FBI investigation, reportedly for tax crimes, though it
has been reported that investigators are also scrutinizing his foreign
dealings.
Hunter himself seems to have
believed his business partner's ties to Chinese intelligence agencies –
telling a friend in an audio recording on his laptop that Ho was the
'spy chief of China'.
Patrick Ho
After partnering with Chinese oil giant
CEFC in the multi-million-dollar deal, Bao was appointed as his
secretary and assistant, acting as a go-between for his Chinese business
partners, translating documents and performing clerical work for Hunter
in the joint venture.
According to
Bao's LinkedIn page, she has worked as an analyst and assistant in
finance and private equity in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing and New York
since 2011.
Her Chinese-American family
are based in Arizona, and she studied at the state's university before
taking a masters at top Beijing university Tsinghua.
Her
LinkedIn page does not mention CEFC or the joint venture with the
Bidens, only listing 'Hedge Fund / Asset Management / Financial
Services' as her job from February 2016 to July 2019.
Their
correspondence in emails obtained by DailyMail.com from Hunter's
abandoned laptop were at first purely professional, with Bao booking
plane tickets and hotel rooms and translating reports on Hunter's oil
and gas ventures into Chinese for his CEFC business partners.
But
in November 2017, just weeks after Bao's first email to Hunter, Ho was
arrested in New York on charges of bribing the president of Chad for oil
rights.
After the arrest, Bao wrote Hunter an email asking for information about the case 'as a learning opportunity'.
'I
just don't get it, why the US has the legitimacy or the authority to
sue when whatever involved is not happening in the U. S. and no U. S.
company is involved?' she wrote.
'In
case if someone really should sue, it should be Hong Kong or the African
country government as it involves its citizen...how is this has
anything to do with the U. S.? Or something happened in the U. S. and
through a U. S. bank ? Or some international lawy that every country
follows?
'So the US government thought
he did, based on the U. S. government's standard, might be his dealing
with whatever various circle(s)/companies he close to, or a personal
matter, may or may not related to CEFC...why the US government is so
certain of the linkage?'
She ended the
message by lavishing compliments on the president's son, writing: 'Many
thanks for having been the most amazing and understanding boss, and the
most charismatic friend and coconspirator-in-mischief.'
By January 2018 Bao was becoming more
familiar in her emails to Hunter, telling him: 'One of my New Year's
Wishes is that you could drink less… I will do anything and everything
to make you happy so that alcoholic beverages' widely believed mythical
function as a stress reliever won't be an excuse for indulgence!
'You
have such a charismatic personality and I know you are a super nice
person that I'm naturally draw to, so you know, I have your best
interest at heart and I want to do something for you to show my
appreciation.'
Bao's messages became
strangely obsequious, even emailing Hunter to tell him not to pay her
for the whole month of February because she took four vacation days to
see her family.
'I'm taking too many days off on February,
I really should not waste your money like this,' the diligent assistant
wrote. 'Please do not pay me any salary for the month of February.'
In
one striking email Bao revealed that she had Hunter's military dog tags
and asked him to visit her New York apartment to pick them up.
Hunter
wears the tags in several naked selfies on his laptop, as well as in
home-made porn videos shot with prostitutes which he uploaded to his
Porn Hub account. Bao does not appear in any explicit pictures or videos
on the laptop.
'Your doggy chain
necklace: I thought I would simply bring it to you whenever I see you
during your last trip in NY, but you were too busy and that didn't
happen. Please let me know when and where I should bring it to you or
how would you like it to be delivered,' Bao wrote to Hunter in March
2018.
'I think the most convenient way
might be to simply pick it up whenever you are in NY next time. For the
meanwhile, it is in a safe place awaiting for you.'
As
Hunter's joint venture with the Chinese began to crumble that month
amid the arrests of its two leaders, Bao wrote one of her most
surprising emails encouraging him to raid the coffers of one of Hunter
and CEFC's joint corporate vehicles called Hudson West.
'I'm
a bit hesitated to say this to you, because I don't want you to
misunderstood me as a messed up bad girl. However, for your benefit, I
can't hold it back to myself,' Bao wrote in the March 26 email marked
'confidential'.
'Here is my two cents:
Whatever money from Hudson West, please take them, take as much as
possible, or figure out a way to spend them for your own benefit.
'It
doesn't matter whether the left-over operational fund for Hudson West
is labeled as 'personal goodwill / loan' or 'non-recourse' 'recourse'
'borrowing/drawing'...just take it and keep as much as possible.
'If
you do not take that money, the money would ended up become 'nobody's
money.' So it is better to use it for good. 'Nobody's money' means they
take away whatever you give up to no body knows where in the system it
will end up and whomever stranger might simply take the money for
granted.'
Delaware company filings show the
Biden-CEFC joint venture corporation, Hudson West III, was dissolved in
November 2018, eight months after Bao’s email recommending Hunter take
any remaining money in its accounts.
According to last year’s Senate committee report, payments to Hunter from the corporation continued through September 2018.
The
report also says that between January 2018 and October 2018, Hudson
West III wired Jim Biden’s consulting firm Lion Hall Group a total
$76,746.15 with the memo, ‘office expense and reimbursement.’
Wire
orders on the abandoned laptop show Hunter also transferred about $1.4
million of funds from his company Owasco to his uncle’s consulting firm
between August 14th 2017 and August 3rd 2018.
In an earlier email Bao also encouraged Hunter to add personal bills into his expenses reports for the joint venture.
'I
included your Yale Club Quarterly Contribution starting from last year
up to the latest one, not sure if the accounting department will let
this go, but let's try,' she wrote.
'Don't worry about our drinks, it's on me, no need to be included in this report.'
After
the joint venture had dissolved, Bao emailed Hunter with a
conspiratorial message encouraging him to help his father run for
president and listing talking points to combat criticism of Hunter's
dealings with the Chinese.
'Trump
advocate's stupid book with exaggeration and fabrication on your
business connection with Chinese or that NYTimes article mentioning a
retired Hong Kong official trying to reach you/Uncle Jim when need help
have no relevance whatsoever!' she wrote.
2 comments:
OK. Now what?
Any who does NOT think the ChiComs have "interesting" photos of Hunter Biden is stuck on stupid.
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