WASHINGTON- Eric Schwerin, Biden family associate told congressional impeachment investigators Tuesday that he provided free financial services to President Biden during his vice presidency while doing business with his son Hunter.
A source familiar with Schwerin’s testimony said he described performing money-related tasks for free, including bookkeeping, paying bills and preparing tax returns and official financial reporting forms for the vice president at the time.
Schwerin, rarely seen, did not speak to the press during his trip to Capitol Hill for a closed-door deposition with House members and lawyers investigating allegations of corruption in the first family.
Schwerin said that although he was one of Hunter Biden’s closest aides, he knew little about the details of payments from benefactors in China, Kazakhstan, Romania, Russia and Ukraine, the statement said. source.
However, Schwerin’s testimony could further advance Republican claims that Joe Biden misrepresented his distance from his relatives’ business dealings.
As a candidate in 2019, Biden said: “What I will do is the same thing we did in our administration. There will be an absolute wall between individuals and businesses (businesses) and the government. There was no trace of scandal when we were there.”
A second person familiar with Schwerin’s remarks said he insisted he provided his services to Joe Biden as a friend and that the favors had nothing to do with his work with Hunter Biden.
Some details of Schwerin’s testimony were not immediately known, such as what he might have said about communications with Joe Biden using email addresses registered under pseudonyms for the then-vice president.
Joe Biden exchanged emails at least 54 times with Schwerin during his vice presidency, according to earlier revelations – as his second son, Hunter Biden, courted business in countries where his father had influence, such as China and Ukraine.
Some of these emails were sent around the same time that Joe Biden was making official trips to Ukraine as US policy chief – while Hunter was earning a million-dollar salary serving on the board of the natural gas company Burisma Holdings from spring 2018. 2014
Schwerin was president of Hunter Biden’s Rosemont Seneca Partners, which was established in 2009 and served as the vehicle through which Hunter earned foreign income.
Republicans leading the impeachment inquiry were expected to ask Schwerin whether foreign funds had been paid, even indirectly, to Joe Biden, as well as the content of their emails, which is not fully known.
In a prepared opening statement, Schwerin said he was “not aware” that Joe Biden was receiving foreign money.
“I performed a number of administrative and accounting tasks for then-Vice President Joe Biden related to his household finances. I also assisted him and his accountants in preparing his taxes and annual financial statements,” the prepared statement said.
“In the course of performing these duties, I was given the opportunity to view transactions in and out of Vice President Biden’s bank accounts while he was vice president. Based on this insight, I am not aware of any financial transactions or compensation that Vice President Biden received related to the business conducted by any of his family members or their associates, nor of any involvement of his share in their businesses.
Legal experts say a government official does not necessarily have to receive compensation directly if his or her relatives have been paid.
Schwerin also handled “nearly every aspect” of the financial affairs of the family of Hunter Biden, the ex-wife of the first son, Kathleen Buhle. wrote in his 2022 memoir.
The elder Biden’s ties to Burisma, the Ukrainian gas company, include participation in a April 2015 dinner in Washington with company board advisor Vadym Pozharskyi and Hunter associates from Russia and Kazakhstan.
Hunter Biden, joined by Pozharskyi and Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky, also walked away from a December 2015 Dubai rally to “call DC” shortly before one of the then-vice president’s trips to Ukraine, former Biden family associate Devon Archer testified in July.
Republicans leading the impeachment inquiry are expected to ask Schwerin whether foreign funds were paid to Joe Biden, as well as the contents of their emails, which are not fully known.
Some of these emails were sent around the same time that Joe Biden was making official trips to Ukraine as US policy chief – while Hunter was earning a million-dollar salary serving on the board of the natural gas company Burisma Holdings from spring 2018. 2014
The elder Biden’s ties to Burisma include participation in a April 2015 dinner in Washington with company board advisor Vadym Pozharskyi and Hunter associates from Russia and Kazakhstan.
Hunter Biden, joined by Pozharskyi and Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky, also walked away from a rally in Dubai to “call DC” shortly before one of the then-vice president’s trips to Ukraine, a testified Devon Archer, a former Biden family associate, in July.
Archer said he understood the comment to mean they were calling Joe Biden.
Zlochevsky allegedly told a paid FBI informant in 2016 that he “forced” to pay $10 million in bribes to the Bidens in exchange for the vice president’s help in ousting Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, who was investigating the company for corruption. The allegation has not been proven.
Joe Biden also interacted several times with the long-time president of kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschkowho was the “major shareholder” and a participant in a subsidiary Hunter Biden chaired called Burisma Geothermal, according to records from Hunter’s abandoned laptop that were corroborated to the Post by a former business associate.
Schwerin’s deposition follows testimony last week from Biden family associate Rob Walker, who revealed that Joe Biden met Ye Jianming in 2017chairman of CEFC China Energy, who paid millions of dollars to Hunter Biden and his uncle James shortly after Joe Biden left office as vice president.
Previous testimony revealed that Joe Biden, although he claimed to have “never” discussed business with his son or brother and “did not” interact with their partners, engaged with their foreign associates in the most high-profile transactions abroad.
Archer further testified that Joe Biden was on speakerphone during approximately 20 business meetings between his son and foreign associates.
Archer also said the then-vice president had coffee during a 2013 trip to Beijing with Jonathan Li, the new CEO of BHR Partners — a state-backed Chinese investment fund in which Hunter held a 10% stake until at least 2021. Joe Biden then greeted Li over loudspeaker, Archer said, and wrote college recommendation letters for his children.
