Former Biden family business partner Jason Galanis told lawmakers last month that Joe Biden was repeatedly used to push deals across the finish line.
On Monday, the House Oversight Committee released the transcript of the lawmakers’ interview with Jason Galanis, who was a colleague of Hunter Biden and Devon Archer between 2012 and 2015. Their goal, Galanis said, “was to make billions, not millions.”
Access to Vice President Biden, according to House testimony, was one of their main products sold to foreign businessmen.
“Our activity included the acquisition of an 85-year-old Wall Street firm, Burnham and Company, the surviving division of Drexel, Burnham, Lambert, valued at $1.5 billion, and, combining that with other insurance and wealth management businesses that we owned and acquired,” Galanis explained. “Burnham was the focal point of integrating, quote, a Biden family office into a company large-scale financial institution with international influence.”
Hunter Biden and Devon Archer, Galanis said, were counting on Biden, then vice president, to grow their business.
“I remember being with Hunter Biden and Devon Archer at the Peninsula Bar in New York where Hunter answered a call from his father,” Galanis said. Hunter Biden explained the need for “help getting across the finish line” on a deal linked to a $300 billion Chinese financial services company “with close ties to the Chinese Communist Party.”
“That wasn’t the only time I heard Hunter call his dad about business,” Galanis said. “I was present when Hunter called his father on a cell phone and put the call on speakerphone.”
Galanis said the vice president was named speaker in 2014 along with Elena Baturina, the widow of a former Moscow mayor who gifted Hunter Biden $3.5 million the same year. Baturina was obviously absent Biden administration sanctions unveiled shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“I remember being stunned by that call,” Galanis said. “It was clear to me that this was a pre-arranged call with his father intended to convey to Russian investors that Hunter had access to his father and all the power and prestige of that position.”
Archer, who also served with Hunter Biden on the board of directors of Burisma, said In August, lawmakers said Biden’s name was the “brand” used to cultivate investors and intimidate opponents. Archer also said Hunter Biden regularly calls the vice president on speakerphone.
“I think at the end of the day, part of what was delivered is the brand,” Archer said. “I mean, it’s like anything, you know, if you’re Jamie Dimon’s son or any CEO. You know, I think that’s what we’re talking about, is that a brand was offered with other capabilities and scopes. …I think “brand” is the best way to describe it.
Galanis learned a few days after the conversation with Baturina that the Russian billionaire “committed to a firm order, I quote, of ($)10 to $20 million with a Burnham investment banking client.”
Galanis currently serves a 14 years old prison sentence for securities fraud, which Galanis said also involved Archer and Hunter Biden.
“In reviewing the facts,” Galanis said, “I realized that prosecutors in the SDNY, Southern District of New York, took Devon Archer lightly and did not charge Hunter Biden at all.”
“I believe the SDNY’s prosecution strategy was intended to protect Hunter Biden and, ultimately, Vice President Biden,” Galanis added.
Hunter Biden himself testified before the House Oversight and Judiciary committees last week. Wyoming Republican Rep. Harriet Hageman, who serves on the Judiciary Committee, said The Federalist’s testimony made clear that Hunter Biden had nothing to offer “other than access to his father.” Galanis said the same thing in February.
“All of Hunter Biden’s value to our company was his last name and his access to his father, Vice President Joe Biden,” Galanis said.
