Sen. Hunter Biden, son of Vice President Joe Biden, and the Ukrainian oil corporation Burisma Holdings were allegedly involved in a multimillion dollar bribery conspiracy, according to a previously secret FBI document that was made public by Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa on Thursday.
A wealthy Ukrainian oligarch claimed he was “coerced” into paying the Biden family, according to a partially redacted FD-1023 form that Grassley posted online.
🚨BREAKING🚨
The FD-1023 form alleging then-Vice President JOE BIDEN was involved in a $5,000,000 bribery scheme with a Burisma executive has been released by @ChuckGrassley.
Read 👇 pic.twitter.com/Mc6dVIwdsG
— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) July 20, 2023
The document, which was dated June 30, 2020, quoted an unnamed “confidential human source” who explained how the Bidens allegedly used their power to exploit the corporation.
Despite having no prior professional experience in the oil and gas industry, Hunter Biden began serving on the Burisma board in 2014.
He was considered “stupid,” according to an FBI source, but was maintained on the board because his father was at the time the vice president and the Obama administration’s point person on Ukraine.
According to the FD-1023 form, Mykola Zlochevsky, the owner of Burisma, allegedly informed the FBI informant at a 2016 meeting in Austria that “it cost 5 [million] to pay one Biden, and 5 [million] to another Biden.”
According to the confidential source, the remarks were made in reference to Burisma’s then-proposed acquisition of an American energy company.
“Zlochevsky made some comment that although Hunter Biden ‘was stupid, and his (Zlochevsky’s) dog was smarter,’ Zlochevsky needed to keep Hunter Biden (on Burisma’s board) ‘so everything will be okay,’” the document said.
The FBI’s source also reportedly asked, at one point in the conversation, if it was Joe or Hunter Biden who suggested to Zlochevsky that he “retain” Hunter Biden as a director of his company.
“They both did,” Zlochevsky allegedly said in a response.
The document said that in 2017, “Zlochevsky said he ‘was not happy Trump won the election’ and that he was ‘concerned about Burisma’s involvement with the Bidens.’”
The owner of Burisma was further cited as saying that he “didn’t want to pay the Bidens and he was “pushed to pay” them.”
The source claimed that when questioned about supposedly giving the family money, Zlochevsky used Russian language that meant “forced or coerced to pay.”
Viktor Shokin, a former Ukrainian prosecutor who was fired while looking into Burisma for possible corruption, was also mentioned in the letter.
According to the document, Zlochevsky was originally reluctant to work with the Bidens and would have chosen “‘some normal [American] oil and gas advisors’ because the Bidens have no prior experience in that business sector.”
He was worried that no transaction would go through because his company was under scrutiny.
“CHS reiterated CHS’s opinion that Zlochevsky was making a mistake and he should fire Hunter Biden and deal with Shokin’s investigation directly so that the matter will remain an issue in Ukraine, and not tum into some international matter,” the FBI FD-1023 said.
“Zlochevsky responded something to the effect of, ‘Don’t worry, this thing will go away.’”
The informant allegedly suggested Zlochevsky break off contact with the Bidens to the FBI.
“Zlochevsky responded that he appreciated CHS’s advice, but that ‘it’s too late to change his decision,’” the document said. “CHS understood this to mean that Zlochevsky had already had paid the Bidens, presumably to ‘deal with Shokin.’”
In a statement on Thursday, Grassley attacked the Justice Department and FBI for keeping the document secret for so long.
“What did the Justice Department and FBI do with the detailed information in the document?” the senator asked. “And why have they tried to conceal it from Congress and the American people for so long?”
He added, “The Justice Department and FBI have failed to come clean.”
Grassley promised to look at the FBI informant’s claims in great detail.
You can read the FD-1023 in its entirety here.
