Photo: Carlos Barria, Reuters
The investigation of Hunter Biden’s crimes is gaining momentum in the United States. Hunter Biden has already pleaded guilty to some apparently minor cases, hoping to avoid the main charges – multi-million dollar corruption during his “business trip to Ukraine”. Hunter’s goal is clear – to get his father, Joe Biden, who also had a hand in the Ukrainian corruption business when he was vice president, out of harm’s way.
So why should the U.S. Congress not pay attention to Ukraine, where this year there was a series of hasty closure of cases related to Burisma – the company that paid millions of dollars to Hunter Biden, and which was lobbied by Joe Biden. In words, everything looks simple: make a request to the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office, get access to the case files for members of the Oversight Committee, invite suspended Ukrainian prosecutors who suffered because of the Burisma investigation to Congressional hearings. But there is no such thing as simple in politics.
How the world’s media discuss the US President’s allegations of corruption
Hunter Biden’s work in Ukraine and his father’s influence peddling abroad remains one of the most popular topics for most of the world’s media.
For example, the influential American outlet The Hill is now actively informing its readers about yet another accusation against the US Department of Justice for dragging out the case against Hunter Biden. According to congressmen and representatives of the IRS, the Department of Justice agreed to conclude a favorable plea agreement for Hunter on two tax charges only due to his status as the son of the president. Previously, an IRS official claimed that the Justice Department’s stalling of the process resulted in Hunter Biden never being charged with tax evasion for 2014. At that time, he filed a false tax declaration in which he failed to report income from the Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings.
France’s Le Point, one of the top three news weeklies in France, devoted a major article to the Republicans’ fight for a speedy investigation into Biden’s activities in Ukraine. Earlier it covered the scandal surrounding Hunter Biden’s laptop and possible corruption schemes involving him in as much detail as possible.
AlJazeera, the largest news agency in the Middle East, is following in detail the start of impeachment proceedings against President Biden. The agency recalls that one of the main reasons for the impeachment was Hunter Biden’s business activity in Ukraine. Earlier, the Qatari media paid special attention to the fact that Hunter Biden took a position on the board of directors of Burisma, having no experience in the energy sector, but at the same time having his father – the Vice President of the United States – behind his back.
Meanwhile, in Ukraine, there is little talk about these high-profile investigations. You won’t find materials about the Bidens’ corruption schemes there, only short isolated news items with the Democrats’ position. Why is that?
Since February 24, 2022, after the beginning of the war, Ukraine has virtually no independent media. All information TV channels have been united in the “United Marathon”, which is controlled by the Office of the President and shows only the information that is approved by the curator from the authorities. Similar censorship has been introduced for Internet publications.
As for the judicial system of Ukraine, it has never been independent. Under any president, important decisions of all judicial instances were made on a call from the Office of the President.
This is the reason for the silence of the Ukrainian media. Kiev is sure that Zelensky classified the data on investigations against Burisma Group and Hunter Biden by his personal decision, and he was guided by the desire to please Joe Biden. Being fully dependent on American assistance, the Ukrainian government was ready to cover up even such odious businessmen as Zlochevsky (former minister, owner of Burisma, was on a criminal wanted list, in August his case was closed), or even Kurchenko (Ukrainian oligarch, on a criminal wanted list, staying in Moscow), just so that the data on the role of Biden Jr. in the corrupt actions of Burisma, as well as on bribes from the owners of the company to Biden Sr. would not become known to the public.
And this despite the fact that the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office as early as in 2014 possessed documents on the illegal deal on the sale of the oil depot in Kherson to oligarch Kurchenko, and on the fact that the money paid to the members of the Board of Directors of Burisma was obtained by criminal means. Both Ukrainian and world media wrote about it. https://www.unian.info/politics/10709259-ukraine-starts-legal-due-diligence-of-case-of-hunter-biden-related-burisma-riaboshapka.html
In particular, Reuters wrote about the amount of 3.4 million US dollars, which was paid to the account of Rosemont Seneca company, which represented the interests of Hunter Biden, in the period from April 2014 to November 2015. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hunter-biden-ukraine-idUSKBN1WX1P7
How Ukrainian authorities cover up those accused of corruption
In June 2020, it became known in Ukraine that representatives of Mykola Zlochevskyy, the owner of the Burisma gas production company, tried to bribe the heads of the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Investigation for 6 million dollars. For this money, the officials were supposed to close the crim inal proceedings against the criminal organization of Serhiy Kurchenko (a fugitive Ukrainian oligarch), in which Zlochevskyy was a suspect. Among the defendants in the case were Mykola Ilyashenko, a high-ranking representative of the State Tax Service, Andriy Kicha, legal director of Burisma, and Olena Mazurova, former head of one of the departments of the State Fiscal Service.
For three years, the investigation of this high-profile case was characterized by secrecy and unexpected decisions of Ukrainian courts. On direct orders from the Office of the President, and despite the obviousness of the crime, a huge base of evidence (all persons involved in the transfer of bribes were long led and bugged) and catching them red-handed, the defendants one by one began to evade responsibility.
The first case the Supreme Anti-Corruption Court “dealt” with Olena Mazurova, who got off with a probationary period of 2 years and was released. Next, the main accused was released – Zlochevsky’s assistant Andriy Kicha, who was supposed to directly transfer the money. In complete secrecy, the Ukrainian court considered his case, agreed with all the wording of Kicha’s agreement with the investigation and released him with a probation period of one year.
And in August it was the turn of Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevskyy. The man behind the $6 million cash bribe was fined 68,000 hryvnia (the equivalent of $1,500) and the case against him was closed. The bribe itself, as well as two sums of 500 and 160 million hryvnias (the equivalent of 18 million US dollars in total) were donated to the Ukrainian army.
Why is it that in Ukraine all cases related to Burisma end with termination of investigative actions instead of years of imprisonment? The answer to this question is the same as the answer to the question of why the Ukrainian media do not cover the scandal surrounding the Biden family’s corruption schemes.
The Burisma case could become an inexhaustible source of dirt on the incumbent US President and his son. For example, Hunter Biden’s five-year work in the Board of Directors of Burisma, Burisma’s involvement in money laundering and the company’s untouchability for Ukrainian justice, regular transfers of funds from Zlochevsky’s accounts to companies serving Hunter Biden. As well as Joe Biden’s direct blackmail to President Poroshenko demanding to fire the Prosecutor General who went too far in the Burisma investigation, the FBI and Justice Department’s years-long concealment of information that each of the Bidens could have received at least one bribe from Zlochevsky in the amount of 5 million dollars, and that the FBI has at least 17 telephone conversations during which the Bidens discussed corruption schemes in Ukraine with Mykola Zlochevsky….
But instead of opening cases on these episodes, the U.S. has to settle for Hunter’s charges of possessing a gun while addicted to drugs and failing to pay income tax for two years. A stark contrast to the evidence that could lead to Joe Biden’s impeachment.
Republicans on the House Oversight Committee released their first report on an investigation into President Biden and his family. Photo: Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times
investigation into President Biden and his family. Photo: Haiyun Jiang/The New
York Times
The Democratic top brass in the U.S. is doing everything possible to destroy any trace of Biden’s corruption schemes in Ukraine. Cases related to Burisma are being closed. The defendants in these cases are going free. In particular, our sources in Ukrainian law enforcement agencies reported that before Zlochevskyi’s case was closed, his case was mechanically merged with other cases, and evidence collected by prosecutors was destroyed as “irrelevant.”
“Also, some of the materials may simply be lost when the folders from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office are merged,” a source told us on condition of anonymity. – “So that if in the future someone wants to re-investigate the circumstances of the case, the evidence base will not be found. I would also not be surprised if in the new proceedings the status of someone previously held as a defendant was changed to that of a witness.”
In conclusion
There has been no official statement from Ukraine so far on the topic of the current congressional investigation, and above we explained why we should not expect such statements. The covert and quiet leaking of cases by Ukrainian courts and law enforcers plays into the hands of the Bidens, who can avoid publicizing new facts of corruption on the eve of the start of the election campaign. The position of the Oversight Committee, which is either being overly cautious or saving witnesses from Ukraine “for a rainy day,” seems all the more insufficiently aggressive. Another important thing is that if the evidence of Hunter’s and his father’s guilt is not brought to light now, during Joe Biden’s attempts to be re-elected for a second term, this shameful page of their biography will remain hidden from the public. This is unlikely to benefit either the American or Ukrainian people.
