How five members of Joe Biden’s family got rich through his connections.

From the book PROFILES IN CORRUPTION: Abuse of Power by America’s Progressive Elite by Peter Schweizer. Copyright C 2020 by Peter Schweizer. Reprinted by permission of Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

Political figures have long used their families to route power and benefits for their own self-enrichment. In my new book, “Profiles in Corruption: Abuse of Power by America’s Progressive Elite,” one particular politician — Joe Biden — emerges as the king of the sweetheart deal, with no less than five family members benefiting from his largesse, favorable access and powerful position for commercial gain. In Biden’s case, these deals include foreign partners and, in some cases, even U.S. taxpayer dollars.

The Biden family’s apparent self-enrichment involves no less than five family members: Joe’s son Hunter, son-in-law Howard, brothers James and Frank, and sister Valerie.

When this subject came up in 2019, Biden declared, “I never talked with my son or my brother or anyone else — even distant family — about their business interests. Period.”

As we will see, this is far from the case…

Joe Biden’s younger brother, James, has been an integral part of the family political machine from the earliest days when he served as finance chair of Joe’s 1972 Senate campaign, and the two have remained quite close. After Joe joined the U.S. Senate, he would bring his brother James along on congressional delegation trips to places like Ireland, Rome and Africa.

When Joe became vice president, James was a welcomed guest at the White House, securing invitations to such important functions as a state dinner in 2011 and the visit of Pope Francis in 2015. Sometimes, James’ White House visits dovetailed with his overseas business dealings, and his commercial opportunities flourished during his brother’s tenure as vice president.

Consider the case of HillStone International, a subsidiary of the huge construction management firm, Hill International. The president of HillStone International was Kevin Justice, who grew up in Delaware and was a longtime Biden family friend. On November 4, 2010, according to White House visitors’ logs, Justice visited the White House and met with Biden adviser Michele Smith in the Office of the Vice President.

Less than three weeks later, HillStone announced that James Biden would be joining the firm as an executive vice president. James appeared to have little or no background in housing construction, but that did not seem to matter to HillStone. His bio on the company’s website noted his “40 years of experience dealing with principals in business, political, legal and financial circles across the nation and internationally…”

James Biden was joining HillStone just as the firm was starting negotiations to win a massive contract in war-torn Iraq. Six months later, the firm announced a contract to build 100,000 homes. It was part of a $35 billion, 500,000-unit project deal won by TRAC Development, a South Korean company. HillStone also received a $22 million U.S. federal government contract to manage a construction project for the State Department.

David Richter, son of the parent company’s founder, was not shy in explainingHillStone’s success in securing government contracts. It really helps, he told investors at a private meeting, to have “the brother of the vice president as a partner,” according to someone who was there.

The Iraq project was massive, perhaps the single most lucrative project for the firm ever. In 2012, Charlie Gasparino of Fox Business reported that HillStone officials expected the project to “generate $1.5 billion in revenues over the next three years.” That amounted to more than three times the revenue the company produced in 2011.

A group of minority partners, including James Biden, stood to split about $735 million. “There’s plenty of money for everyone if this project goes through,” said one company official.

The deal was all set, but HillStone made a crucial error. In 2013, the firm was forced to back out of the contract because of a series of problems, including a lack of experience by Hill and TRAC Development, its South Korean associate firm. But HillStone continued doing significant contract work in the embattled country, including a six-year contract with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

James Biden remained with Hill International, which accumulated contracts from the federal government for dozens of projects, including projects in the United States, Puerto Rico, Mozambique, and elsewhere.

With the election of his father as vice president, Hunter Biden launched businesses fused to his father’s power that led him to lucrative deals with a rogue’s gallery of governments and oligarchs around the world. Sometimes he would hitch a prominent ride with his father aboard Air Force Two to visit a country where he was courting business. Other times, the deals would be done more discreetly. Always they involved foreign entities that appeared to be seeking something from his father.

There was, for example, Hunter’s involvement with an entity called Burnham Financial Group, where his business partner Devon Archer — who’d been at Yale with Hunter — sat on the board of directors. Burnham became the vehicle for a number of murky deals abroad, involving connected oligarchs in Kazakhstan and state-owned businesses in China.

But one of the most troubling Burnham ventures was here in the United States, in which Burnham became the center of a federal investigation involving a $60 million fraud scheme against one of the poorest Indian tribes in America, the Oglala Sioux.

Devon Archer was arrested in New York in May 2016 and charged with “orchestrating a scheme to defraud investors and a Native American tribal entity of tens of millions of dollars.” Other victims of the fraud included several public and union pension plans. Although Hunter Biden was not charged in the case, his fingerprints were all over Burnham. The “legitimacy” that his name and political status as the vice president’s son lent to the plan was brought up repeatedly in the trial.

The scheme was explicitly designed to target pension funds that had “socially responsible investing” clauses, including pension funds of labor union organizations that had publicly supported Joe Biden’s political campaigns in the past. Indeed, eight of the eleven pension funds that lost their money were either government employee or labor union pension funds. Joe Biden has “a long-standing alliance with labor.” He closely identifies with organized labor. “I make no apologies,” he has said. “I am a union man, period.” And many public unions have endorsed him over the years.

Transcripts from Devon Archer’s trial offer a clearer picture of Hunter Biden’s role at Burnham Asset Management, in particular, the fact that the firm relied on his father’s name and political status as a means of both recruiting pension money into the scheme and alleviating investors’ concerns.

Tim Anderson, a lawyer who did legal work on the issuance of the tribal bonds, recounts seeing Hunter while visiting the Burnham office in New York City to meet with Bevan Cooney, who was later convicted in the case.

The political ties that Biden and Archer had were considered key to the Burnham brand. As stated in an August 2014 email, Jason Galanis, who was convicted in the bond scheme, agreed with an unidentified associate who also thought the company had “value beyond capital” because of their political connections.

In the closing arguments at the trial, one of Devon Archer’s defense attorneys, Matthew Schwartz, explained to the jury that it was impossible to talk about the bond scheme without mentioning Hunter Biden’s name. This “was perfectly sensible,” according to Schwartz, “because Hunter Biden was part of the Burnham team.”

It would be a dream for any new company to announce their launch in the Oval Office at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

StartUp Health is an investment consultancy based out of New York City, and in June 2011 the company barely had a website. The firm was the brainchild of three siblings from Philadelphia. Steven Krein is CEO and co-founder, while his brother, Dr. Howard Krein, serves as chief medical officer. Sister Bari serves as the firm’s chief strategy officer. A friend named Unity Stoakes is a co-founder and serves as president.

StartUp Health was barely up and running when, in June 2011, two of the company’s executives were ushered into the Oval Office of the White House. They met with President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.

The following day the new company would be featured at a large health care tech conference being run by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and StartUp Health executives became regular visitors to the White House, attending events in 2011, 2014 and 2015.

How did StartUp Health gain access to the highest levels of power in Washington? There was nothing particularly unique about the company, but for this:

The chief medical officer of StartUp Health, Howard Krein, is married to Joe Biden’s youngest daughter, Ashley.

“I happened to be talking to my father-in-law that day and I mentioned Steve and Unity were down there [in Washington, D.C.],” recalled Howard Krein. “He knew about StartUp Health and was a big fan of it. He asked for Steve’s number and said, ‘I have to get them up here to talk with Barack.’ The Secret Service came and got Steve and Unity and brought them to the Oval Office.”

StartUp Health offers to provide new companies technical and relationship advice in exchange for a stake in the business. Demonstrating and highlighting the fact that you can score a meeting with the president of the United States certainly helps prove a strategic company asset: high-level contacts.

Vice President Joe Biden continued to help Krein promote his company at several appearances through his last months in the White House, including one in January 2017, where he made a surprise showing at the StartUp Health Festival in San Francisco. The corporate event, open only to StartUp Health members, enabled the 250 people in attendance to chat in a closed session with the vice president.

In late March 2009, Vice President Joe Biden landed in Costa Rica aboard Air Force Two, and went to the Costa Rican presidential palace for a one-on-one with President Oscar Arias. The Biden visit had symbolic significance. The last time a high-ranking American official had visited the country was back in 1997, when Bill Clinton had come.

Joe Biden’s trip to Costa Rica came at a fortuitous time for his brother Frank, who was busy working deals in the country. Just months after Vice President Biden’s visit, in August, Costa Rica News announced a new multilateral partnership “to reform Real Estate in Latin America” between Frank Biden, a developer named Craig Williamson, and the Guanacaste Country Club, a newly planned resort. The partnership, which appears to be ongoing, was wrapped in a beautiful package as a “call on resources available to the companies and individuals to reform the social, economic and environmental practices of real estate developers across the world by example.”

In real terms, Frank’s dream was to build in the jungles of Costa Rica thousands of homes, a world-class golf course, casinos, and an anti-aging center. The Costa Rican government was eager to cooperate with the vice president’s brother.

As it happened, Joe Biden had been asked by President Obama to act as the Administration’s point man in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Frank’s vision for a country club in Costa Rica received support from the highest levels of the Costa Rican government— despite his lack of experience in building such developments. He met with the Costa Rican ministers of education and energy and environment, as well as the president of the country.

On October 4, 2016, the Costa Rican Ministry of Public Education signed a letter of intent with Frank’s company, Sun Fund Americas. The project involved allowing a company called GoSolar to operate solar power facilities in Costa Rica. The previous year, the Obama-Biden administration’s OPIC had authorized a $6.5 million taxpayer-backed loan for the project.

In June 2014, Vice President Joe Biden announced the launch of the Caribbean Energy Security Initiative (CESI). The program called for increasing access to financing for Caribbean energy projects that he strongly supported. American taxpayer dollars were dedicated to facilitating deals that matched U.S. government financing with local energy projects in Caribbean countries, including Jamaica. In January 2015, USAID announced that it would be spending $10 million to boost renewable energy projects in Jamaica over the next five years.

After Joe Biden brought together leaders for CESI, brother Frank’s firm Sun Fund Americas announced that it was “engaged in projects and is in negotiations with governments of other countries in the [Caribbean] region for both its Solar and Waste to Energy development services.” As if to push the idea along, the Obama administration’s OPIC provided a $47.5 million loan to support the construction of a 20-megawatt solar facility in Clarendon, Jamaica.

Frank Biden’s Sun Fund Americas later announced that it had signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) to build a 20-megawatt solar facility in Jamaica.

During his years in the Senate, Biden’s family benefited financially in other ways as he leveraged political power. Joe’s sister Valerie ran all of his Senate campaigns, as well as his presidential runs in 1988 and 2008.

But she was also a senior partner in a political messaging firm named Joe Slade White & Company; the only two executives listed at the firm were Joe Slade White and Valerie.

The firm received large fees from the Biden campaigns that Valerie was running. Two and a half million dollars in consulting fees flowed to her firm from Citizens for Biden and Biden For President Inc. during the 2008 presidential bid alone.

Joe Slade White & Company worked for Biden campaigns over eighteen years.

The Socialist Party and their friends Michael Avenatti and Lev Parnas

 In 2018, the fake, lying news media could not get enough of Michael Avenatti to the point where the CNN reporters thought this great person should run for president.  Naturally, Avenatti’s claim to fame was his representing a so called dancer named Stormy Daniels who alleges she had sex with Donald Trump.   But, if she has said she had sex with Bill Clinton, there would be no news to report since this is a known behavior of Clinton.  Also, during the Kavanaugh hearings Avenatti brought forward phony allegations that were not based in truth or reality.  But then again, he was supported by the socialist democrats that were using all the lies and false allegations they could muster to derail the Kavanaugh nomination, just like they have done and are doing with the Trump impeachment.  But the lying news media and the socialist are in a quandary as their hope for a presidential hopeful has fallen down as he is now in jail on numerous charges.  I wonder, since Avenatti appeared on the lying news media over 250 times, if they will send a reporter to interview him from his jail cell since they could not get enough of him two years ago.  It is amazing though how the lying news media champions an anti-Trumper, but ignore him when the information is false and/or the individual has criminal problems.



The same can be said for their latest wonder, Lev Parnas a Ukrainian that is alleging the quid-pro-quo with Trump on withholding funds to the Ukrainian government.  The fact the money allocated was given to Ukraine after Trump made sure the corruption in the previous Ukrainian administration was ended, the funds were released.  This took about 2 to 3 weeks and Trump was using his executive authority.  There was nothing in the funding legislation that dictated a date the funds were to be given.  It is well documented how corrupt the Ukrainian government was.  Just look at the Hunter Biden/Joe Biden quid-pro-quo and you will see.  Naturally, nobody investigated Joe on this corruption nor the next corrupt deal Hunter had with China for approximately $1.5 Billion.  But Joe had no idea this was happening even though his son flew on the same plane and they met with the same people in both countries and came home with these agreements.  This would mean that Joe is the biggest liar of the biggest idiot.  Take your pick.   



Lev Parnas is also accusing Rick Perry, the former energy secretary, of being involved in this.  So the socialist party and their media arm are now using the same glorious praise for Lev Parnas that they showed with Avenatti.  Even though Parnas is under indictment for numerous felonies.  This has no bearing on their reporting, but this to will go the way of Avenatti and Parnas will never be mentioned again.  Just a matter of time. 



The fact that Nancy Pelosi was aware of Lev Parnas for months and did not bring him in to testify says a lot.  But now she wants him to testify in the senate impeachment trial.  If his information was that important and factual, you would think he would have testified at the impeachment hearing.  That alone tells you how truthful his information is.  After Lev Parnas, who will be the next liar the socialist will present and the medial will fawn over?

Impeachment papers are walked to the Senate

It was interesting watching the 7 so-called House mangers slow walk the articles of impeachment papers to the Senate.  I thought at first I was watching a funeral procession and instead of carrying the folder with the impeachment papers, they were carrying somebody’s ashes.  It seemed this procession was also a true demonstration of how slow the House moves on legislation that would be a benefit to the people and our country.  Like never.  For the past 3 years the House socialist democrats have been pushing for impeachment that really began in 2015 when they realized the threat Trump presented, especially when he spoke of draining the swamp.   We now know all about the swamp and how the swamp people from both parties are trying their best to remove Trump through phony, false and non-criminal allegations that are not part of the process as written in the constitution.   But who cares, it is only the constitution and the swamp people have not been abiding by this document for years.  Rep. Al Green had it correct 3 years ago when he said “We must impeach Trump or he will get re-elected”.  That is what this entire bullshit is all about.  The silent coup to remove this president and preserve the swamp where government is in control of the citizens and the constitution be dammed.  


As Nancy Pelosi said, “Trump will always have impeachment on his record”.   And, she forgot add about what she will have on her record.   Pelosi will be known as a liar, socialist/Marxist that schemed to overthrow a duly elected president that did not and would not cooperate with the swamp.  The socialist will lose in the Senate and they will then blame the Senate for covering up Trump’s crimes.  Of course, we know the articles of impeachment presented do not in any way identify a crime as specified in the constitution, but as I said, it is not about the constitution, but about preserving the swamp and their control over the country.  Besides that, they need a 2/3 vote of the senators to impeach and there is no way they will get 67 senators to vote their way.  Then they will scream the senate is colluding with Trump and have obstructed the impeachment process.   But wait until the Durham and Barr investigations become public, they then will be running for cover while claiming they never knew these individuals identified in this investigation were involved in this conspiracy to overthrow a president.   Remember one thing, this corruption to overthrow Trump from before he was elected to after the election goes right up to the White House and who was in the White House at that time.  Case closed. 

The impeachment and the College Championship Football game

President and Melania attend the championship game and are greeted with a loud and boisterous support from the fans.  Then the president is seen sitting next to actor Vince Vaughn and both are talking to each other.  Then we read where twitter is hit with not only hate against President Trump but also actor Vince Vaughn for not only sitting next to the president but talking to him.  This is the hate what we are witnessing today from the radical left and the socialist democrats that if you even were to say “Hello Mr. President”, you will become a target for the Trump haters.  Is this the hate the American voter wants to elect in November as the socialist democratic presidential candidates espouse the same hate rhetoric?


As for the impeachment, we hear Nancy Pelosi and her fellow socialist demand a fair trial in the Senate and all witnesses and documents be permitted.  Yet this was not allowed in the House impeachment hearing since the corruption of the socialist democrats would be known.  The republicans were not permitted to bring in their witnesses and present documents at the hearing.  This entire House impeachment was a farce, secret interviews of the socialist democrat’s witnesses were conducted in the basement and did not allow due process as provided by the constitution and now they want the Senate to do what the House would not.    The two charges presented for impeachment do not meet the standard of criminal conduct as provided in the constitution and according constitutional scholars are not even criminal.  So, this process is a complete scam and the senate should move to dismiss these charges as they do not meet the standards indicated in the constitution.  If this was allowed to continue, then any future president would be subjected to impeachment allegations just because members of congress don’t like the president.  This would destroy our constitution and country.  President will beat these allegations even if there is a trial, but the House if under the socialist control after the next election, they will continue with this hate and phony allegations against President Trump when he gets re-elected in November for another 4 years and all future presidents will suffer the same fate.

The Socialist Democratic Party and their hate of President Trump

Since before Trump was even elected, the socialist democrats were pushing for his impeachment.  Now why would they want to do that?  During his campaign, Trump kept on saying he wanted to drain the swamp.  We now have learned what the swamp is and has been all along.  It is members of congress from both parties and the unelected bureaucrats that were under the illusion they ran the country.  And if the truth be known, they did.   Then along came Donald Trump and all hell broke loose.  The DNC, Hillary campaign and government agencies, attempted to do their best to prevent his election, even circulating a phony Russian collusion story.  With that failure, they resorted to the impeachment process and after many failures to get the right charges, they came up with two, abusing the power of his office and obstructing Congress.  The allegation of abusing power of his office is the president withheld funds to Ukraine unless they investigated Hunter Biden and Joe Biden’s dealing with their visit together to Ukraine where Joe said he would withhold one Billion in aid unless they fired their government attorney investigating Hunter Biden.  Of course we have that on tape, but nothing was done.  But, President Trump is alleged to have also wanted a quid pro quo just like Joe Biden even though the transcript of the Ukrainian conversation showed no such conversation and no funds were withheld.    


The obstructing congress allegation goes to Trump exercising his powers as president by using executive privilege when it came to having his close advisers testify in the congressional hearings.  Executive privilege is something all presidents have used, including Obama many times, but Obama was a socialist democrat that was not exposing the swamp.  If congress cannot get what they want through a president using executive privilege, they can go to court to obtain what they want.  Naturally, this would eventually end up in the Supreme Court, which is what the constitution provides.  But, it is the constitution that is the sticky point with these socialist democrats.  They do not like the constitution as written and would love to change it or scrap it all together.  That is why they hate Trump’s appointments to the Supreme Court as these appointment are judges that believe in the constitution as written and unless changed through the amendment process, is how courts must rule.  The socialist democrats want judges to interpret the constitution as a living, breathing document that changes over time and avoid the amendment process.  They know, the changes they want would never pass.  


The election of Donald Trump has interfered with their plans and they must have him removed or they will lose their control.  Control, is what these socialist democrats and the unelected bureaucrats want.  They want government to control the people in all facets of their lives.  This is what we see in Venezuela today, North Korea and Cuba to name a few countries where the government leaders live the good life while the people suffer.  It is a well-documented fact, and if the people would open their eyes and read the history of socialism, communism and Marxism, they will see the government the Socialist Democratic Party and their presidential candidates really want.  Control the people. 


The green new deal, and other environmental programs they spit out, is exactly what they want to use to control you.  The type of house you live in, car you drive, job you should have and food you should eat.   But, if you feel government knows better on how you should live your life, then vote for these radicals.  However, if you prefer making your own decisions on your life, vote for Trump.  The choice is easy.  Freedom or slavery. 

Iranian General Qassem Soleimani is killed

Our military under the approval of President Trump, takes our Iranian General Qassem Soleimani who had just arrived at Bagdad Airport and was being transported to who knows where to oversee more violence.  As a result of this drone attack on this violent and the world’s #1 terrorist, additional fellow leaders were also killed. 

Brigadier General Hussein Jafari Nia and Major-General Hadi Taremi were ​also killed in the strike, along with Colonel of the Guards Shahroud Mozaffari Nia and Captain Waheed Zamanian.​ ​

Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy-commander of the Iraqi-based pro-Iran People’s Mobilization Forces ​as well as ​Mohammad al-Shibani, Muhandis’s son-in-law, ​were among t​hose virtually vaporized by one of four American guided missiles fired by a Reaper drone​.

But, if you listen to the fake news media, some so called media experts indicated the attack was appropriate against this terrorist that has been responsible of the killing and maiming thousands of our soldiers and other civilians throughout the region but the drone strike could lead to an expansion of conflict between Iran and the U.S.  But nobody in this fake media has asked what should the U.S. have done with a known terrorist who was known to planning more attacks?  That is the question that the media and the socialist democratic candidates should be asked and answering. 

When we are presented with the opportunity to kill or capture these violent terrorist that are causing death in this region, we should take the strike. 

This attack also sends a message not only to Iran, but North Korea and countries that are under the belief they can push the U.S. and we would just take a step back.  Just like Obama did, except Obama took 2 steps back.  President Trump had forewarned Iran that if they push us we will respond in an appropriate manner at our time and place.  So, Iranian pushed us with the rocket attacks against our troops and then the attack on our embassy in the Green Zone.  It appears Iran was under the illusion that Trump would take 2 steps back and not 2 steps forward. 

If Iran accelerates their attacks against the U.S. either in the Middle East or elsewhere, they should remember what President Trump said when Iran shot down 2 of our drones last year.  “We will respond if pushed and it will not be with thousands of troops on the ground”.  What this president was implying, is we would use all our weapons over troops on the ground.  

Now the socialist democrats are so upset that congress was not informed of this attack before it took place.  Imagine the administration telling Rep. Adam Schiff of the President’s decision.  Adam Schiff would have been on the phone to Iran to let them know what was about to happen.  Even better, he would have been on CNN announcing this to let the world know.  When Osama Bin Laden was killed, congress was not notified in advance.  Then again that was Obama and this is Trump.  By the way, if Obama had authorized this attack, they would have been pushing him for the Nobel Peace Prize.  Like it has been said many times, if President Trump discovered a cure for cancer, they would push further for his impeachment.  The election of Trump has exposed the swamp and all their corruption and the socialist democrats are doing their best to retaliate against Trump by pushing impeachment.  How dare Trump exposed us and our criminal activity that borders on Treason.   The Durham and Barr report will exposed these corrupt elected congressional members as well as those unelected bureaucrats who headed up our agencies.   The American people must know how deep this corruption goes and it includes members of both parties.