Hunter Biden Lobbied State Department in 2016 on Behalf of Corrupt Romanian National, Records Show

Romanian Real Estate Tycoon Paid Hunter Biden Over $1 Million for Unregistered Foreign Lobbying

Background

In 2016, while his father was vice president, Hunter Biden met with a State Department official on behalf of Romanian businessman Gabriel Popoviciu, who paid him over $1 million to help with his corruption case. Emails and documents on Hunter Biden’s laptop reveal a March 2016 meeting with then-U.S. ambassador to Romania Hans Klemm on the topic of Popoviciu’s corruption case. Popoviciu made more than $1 million in wire payments to Biden from November 2015 to June 2017 as he battled the corruption charges in his home country.

The Lobbying

Biden, who was a consultant for the law firm Boies Schiller Flexner at the time, worked with lawyers from the firm to lobby the U.S. embassy in Bucharest to intervene in Popoviciu’s case. Boies Schiller partner Christopher Boies told Biden in a Sept. 1, 2015, email that his law partner was “best friends” with the newly appointed ambassador to Romania, Hans Klemm. Popoviciu’s first wire payment to Biden came just two months later on Nov. 9, 2015, for $59,900.

The Meetings

Four days after the first payment, Biden and Boies Schiller partner Michael Gottlieb discussed a meeting with Klemm and provided him reports about the Popoviciu case, which they said showed the corruption charges were bogus. The emails indicate that Biden attended the meeting, and Biden’s calendar shows a meeting with Klemm at Lapis restaurant in Washington, D.C., on March 30, 2016. Klemm was receptive to the reports and arranged meetings for the Biden consortium with Romanian officials.

The Fallout

Popoviciu was ultimately convicted of bribery in 2017 and sentenced to seven years in prison. Neither Hunter Biden nor Boies Schiller registered as lobbyists for Popoviciu, which could complicate the federal investigation into the first son. Many Republicans have expressed frustration that prosecutors have ignored Biden’s foreign business dealings, or what appears to be his unregistered foreign lobbying.

The Pattern

This is not the first time that Hunter Biden and Boies Schiller contacted the State Department on behalf of foreign clients without registering as lobbyists. In 2014, they hatched a plan to meet with State Department officials on behalf of Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian gas company whose owner was accused of bribery. Biden also crafted a plan to lobby the State Department on behalf of the Chinese private equity firm BHR Partners.

The foreign payments to Biden and his unregistered foreign lobbying could raise questions about whether he engaged in illegal activity. The Lobbying Disclosure Act and the Foreign Agents Registration Act require individuals to disclose their lobbying activity to Congress and the Justice Department.