Hunter Biden firm sought Irish government investments while Biden was VP, raising questions about Ireland trip
Fox News
FIRST ON FOX: President Biden’s embattled son Hunter finally got to visit Ireland with his dad this week after his business partners were previously trying to do business in the country during the Obama administration, according to emails reviewed by Fox News Digital.
In 2011, Hunter’s partners at his now-defunct investment firm Rosemont Seneca Partners discussed making contacts to expand their energy investments in various state-owned investment funds, including in China, Ireland, Oman and Qatar.
On March 8, 2011, Eric Schwerin, the firm’s former president, sent Hunter and then-CEO Devon Archer an email containing the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute’s (SWFI) current list of the top sovereign wealth fund, which are state owned, and their rankings at the time.
“Let’s discuss today what else we can be doing to connect with these groups,” Archer responded, adding that Rosemont Seneca was “already working” with several funds on the list, including two in China.
BIDEN’S CLAIM TO HAVE NO KNOWLEDGE OF HUNTER’S BUSINESS DEALINGS IS BECOMING HARDER TO MAINTAIN
“China Social Security-following up with Jonathan Li to see if there’s viability,” Archer wrote to Schwerin and Hunter, referring to the National Social Security Fund in China, which had over $146 billion in assets at the time, according to the SWFI list, and Hunter’s Chinese business partner, Li, whom Biden briefly met in China more than 2 years later.
In December 2013, then-Vice President Biden traveled to Beijing due to a scheduled meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Hunter expressed interest in joining his father on the trip and ended up going, where he admitted to the New Yorker that he introduced his father to Li, who ran the Chinese private-equity fund Bohai Capital.
According to the report, Hunter arranged for a brief handshake in the lobby of the hotel where the U.S. delegation was staying and then Hunter met up with Li privately.
Archer’s March 2011 email to Hunter and Schwerin added he was scheduling a meeting for that April with the China Investment Corporation, China’s largest sovereign wealth fund that manages part of the government’s foreign exchange reserves.
“CIC- scheduling meeting for April 21st,” Archer wrote.
The SWFI list said CIC had over $332 billion in assets at the time of Archer’s email.
Another sovereign wealth fund mentioned on the SWFI list was the National Pensions Reserve Fund (NPRF) in Ireland, which had $33 billion in assets at the time. The NPRF was a public pension fund that later became the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) in 2014, according to Investopedia.
Archer suggested that someone from Rosemont Seneca reach out to Dan Rooney, the then-U.S. ambassador to Ireland, who was appointed by Obama in 2009, in order to gain connections to the Irish government.
“Ideas we could follow-up on,” Archer wrote. “Ireland- ask for intro through Rooney.”
Schwerin then suggested to Devon and Hunter that an informal meeting with Rooney could be arranged during the St. Patrick’s Day festivities in Washington, D.C., the following week.
“Ireland – I assume there may be some opportunities to informally connect to Rooney, et. al. at the St. Patrick’s Day stuff next week and then formally follow up afterwards?”
Archer then joked that they should use a mashup video of comments by Tom Cruise and Charlie Sheen as their “pitch.”
“We should use this in our pitch,” he said, linking to the video.
Fox News Digital asked the White House whether it was aware of the 2011 email before the Ireland trip, or whether it could guarantee Hunter would not use the trip to further his financial interests, but it declined to respond.
It is unclear whether Hunter and his now-defunct firm were successful with any potential business ventures in Ireland. Rooney passed away in 2017.
News of the email comes as Biden travels Ireland with Hunter, and his sister and former campaign manager, Valerie Biden Owens, on his first presidential trip to Ireland to help celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.
The Bidens boarded Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland on Tuesday and headed for the Northern Ireland capital of Belfast for a four-day tour of the country in an effort to “keep the peace” in the region.
Biden was asked by reporters on the tarmac whether any family members were accompanying him on the trip, but he didn’t give names.
“Just two of my family members who haven’t been there before,” he responded.