by Andrew Kerr
The CEO of a Chinese private equity firm sent a letter to Hunter Biden’s lawyer on Friday saying that the son of former Vice President Joe Biden was no longer serving as an unpaid director of the firm “effective from October 2019.”
The lawyer, George Mesires, confirmed that he had received the single-sentence letter from BHR Partners CEO Jonathan Li on Friday, but he again refused to provide the Daily Caller News Foundation with a copy of Hunter Biden’s actual letter of resignation from the firm’s board.
The DCNF reported Tuesday that Chinese business records continue to identify Hunter Biden as a director of BHR, six months after he pledged to resign from the firm.
Li’s letter doesn’t address Hunter Biden’s ownership stake in BHR. Business records accessed Friday show that Hunter Biden retains a 10% stake in the firm through his company, Skaneateles LLC.
The letter also did not provide the exact date in October that Hunter Biden ceased serving as an unpaid director of BHR, nor did it explain why Chinese business records continue to list Hunter Biden as a director of the firm.
“Mr. Robert Hunter Biden no longer serves as an unpaid director on the board of Bohai Harvest RST (Shanghai) Equity Investment Fund Management Co., Ltd. effective from October 2019,” Li wrote to Mesires in the letter dated April 17. The letter was first disclosed by Washington Post reporter Glenn Kessler.
Trump folks pushing a line that Hunter Biden never resigned from board, citing an apparently outdated database entry. (https://t.co/Rc6YadEK61) Now Hunter Biden's lawyer has obtained letter confirming he did resign in October, as originally reported. https://t.co/wWRlYLgLYg pic.twitter.com/jvSjBHoVrL
— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) April 17, 2020
BHR manages the equivalent of $2.1 billion in assets, according to its website. The firm is funded and controlled primarily by Chinese government-owned shareholders, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Chinese business records accessed Friday continue to list Hunter Biden as a director of BHR.
Mesires told the DCNF in early November that his client had resigned from BHR’s board, but he did not provide any evidence of his departure from the firm at the time.
Hunter Biden received wall-to-wall media coverage when his lawyer announced on his behalf in October that he would resign from the board of BHR by the end of the month, and Joe Biden lauded the move as a representation of “the kind of man of integrity he is.”
However, the statement did not say whether Hunter Biden intended to relinquish his 10% ownership stake in the Chinese private equity firm.
Joe Biden pledged in December that none of his family members, including Hunter Biden, would engage in foreign business activities were he to become the next president.
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Andrew Kerr is a reporter for the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Hunter Biden” by Burisma Group. Background Photo “BHR Partners” by BHR Partners.
