Mobster Whitey Bulger’s nephew played role in Hunter Biden’s Chinese business ventures: emails
The namesake nephew of bloodthirsty Boston mobster James “Whitey” Bulger wo♑rked closely with Hunter Biden in his Chinese business ventures, according to emails reviewed by The Post.
Jim Bulger, chairman and co-founder of the Boston-based Thornton Group financial advisory firm, forwarded an email in January 2014 from associate Mike Leonard proposing a meeting among Hunter Biden — whose father, Joe Biden, at the time was vice president of the United States — Bulger, and Rosemont Seneca co-founder Devon Archer.
The email sent on Jan. 27, 2014 — with a subject line that read, “Meeting with Chinese Ambassador” — suggested the group meet in Washington, DC, to “talk about the fund,” according to the message.
“Pretty interesting that someone at the Embassy in Beijing would be interested in wh꧒at the domestic Bohai PE Fund was up to,” Jim Bulger wrote. “Thought you guys should see this. I still believe a meeting early next week with the Ambassador if possible would be best, hope this as not cause to [sic] much of an ass ache.”
Archer, Biden’s businဣess partner at Rosemont Seneca, replied hours later that he was “providing notes to the Embassy” on the purpose of the meeting and to confirm if timing was “possible,” according to the messa🌳ge.
It’s unclear, however, if the meeting ever ꧂took place. A message seeking comment from BHR Partners in Beijing was not immediately returned early Thursday.
“BHR, with its unique mixed ownership, combines the resources and platforms of China’s largest financial institutions … and the networks and know-how of our US-based investment fund and advisory firm shareholders,” its .
Rosemont Seneca was working with the Thornton Group years after Jim Bulger’s father and Whitey’s younger brother, William “Billy” Bulger, served as the Democratic president of the Massachusetts state Senate from 1978 to 1996.
During the time Billy Bulger ran Massachusetts politics, his brother Whitey ran the Irish mob in Boston, protected by rogue FBI agents to whom he fed information against largely Italian-run Mafia crews. He spent 16 yea🅘rs as a fugitive after being tipped off that he was about to be arrested — and even replaced Osama bin Laden as the🤡 nation’s most wanted outlaw — before getting busted in California in 2011.
In 2013, he was convicted of dozens of felonies, including participating in 11 murders, and sentenced to two life terms plus five years by a judge who told him that the “scope, callousness and depravity of your crimes are almost unfathomable.” Five years later, he was killed in prison.
Billy Bulger, meanwhile, had also worked closely with US Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), whose stepson, Christopher Heinz, co-founded the Washington-based Rosemont Seneca investment fund named after the Heinz family’s estate near Pittsburgh.
In 2013, Thornton Group teamed up with Rosemont Seneca to launch a joint venture with Chinese inves🐬tment firm Bohai Capital to form BHR Partners♊, which is controlled by the Bank of China Limited.
Months after the previous email, Jim Bulger reached out to Hunter Biden and Archer in 𝐆May 2014 indicating progress in the ongoing partnership.
“Gentlemen, during the weekly BHR call last night Lindsay informed the whole China team excluding Jonathan about the message you both conveyed during the ♒morning call with Lindsay,” Bulger wrote. “She was very clear to all on the phone that he signing of an investment contr🐎act with Gouxin or BOC or PICC is task number 1.”
Bulger’s reference to BOC is likely the Bank of China, while PICC appears to be the People’s Insurance Company of China. The Thornton Group LLC chairman underscored the “need for a contracted Chinese anchor investor,” according to the email message obtained by The Post.
“The message cannot be any more clear,” Bulger told Archer and Biden. “I know this has been a refrain with Jonathan since the beginning it is now absolutely clear and reinforced with the whole BHR C✤hina team.”
Bulger’s mention of “Jonathan” refers to Chinese financier Jonathan Li꧋, who ran the pri🌸vate equity fund Bohai Capital.
Bulger suggested Archer and Biden “keep this thing very simple in the beginning so we can get a contract executed ASAP,” according to the email sent on May 23, 2014.
“Mike Leonard will circulate on 🌟Monday his high level research on the KAZ/Sino energy business so you both can review prior to your trip,” Bulger’s message concluded. “Thanks, Jimmy.”
Archer, meanwhi🌃le, appeared to be elated by the news.
“Great update Jimmy,” Archer replied. “🍰Thank you! Have a great weekend and see you in the office Tuesday.”
Archer, Biden’s former business partner, was sentenced to a year in prison in February for his role in a scheme to defraud a Native American t📖ribe of $60 mi𒆙llion in bonds.
Prior to his 2016 arrest, Archer also served with Biden on the board of Burisma Holdings, a Ukraine-based energy company. B♌iden had no ties to the fraud scheme in which pr✱osecutors said Archer and his co-defendants bought more than $60 million in bonds from the Oglala Sioux and built a “financial services mega-company” rather than using them for annuity.
An attorney for Archer said in Fe𝓡bruary he intended to 🧜appeal the sentence.
In 2010, Hunter Biden visited China as a rep for Rosemont Seneca during the second ye🧸ar of his father’s vice presidency. He was joined on the trip by Jiꦗm Bulger.
Two years later, as Vice President Joe Biden and President Barack Obama sought a second term in the White House, Hunter Biden and Arc🦂her first made contact with Li.
Biden, Archer and Li went on to become partners in the new operation to invest Chinese cash in ventures outside the nation. Some 80% of the resulting firm, Bohai Harvest, was controlled by Chinese state-owned interests, The Post reported in late 2020.
Hunter Biden’s laptop — first obtained by The Post — is under renewed scrutiny after mainstream news outlets like the Washington Post and New York Times reversed course and deemed thꩲe nearly 22,000 emails on it sent from 2009 through 2019 as authentic after at first dismissing it, incorrectly, as a possible “disinformation campaign” by Russia.
The Bulger emails surfaced as a group of GOP House members want the Department of Justice to provide an update in the ongoing investigation into Hunter Biden’s foreign bus꧋iness dealings in Ukraine and China.
Rep. Bob Good of Virginia and 14 other lawmaker🐽s claimed in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland that Biden’s dealings in the countries involved potential civil or criminal violations by President Biden and members of his administration, Fox News reported Wednesday.
Delaware US Attorne𒊎y David Weiss is probing whether Hunter Biden committed tax fraud by failing to fully account for compensation up to $50,000 a month as he sat on Burisma’s board.
But “little detail” of Weiss’ investigation has been made public and Congress has a “constitutional obligation” to perform oversight of the executive branch, as well as a moral duty to look into whether the president of any senior official in his administration was🍨 “ethically compromised or injured,” Good wrote.
The Republican lawmake🍒rs also want more information on Hunter Biden’s ties to foreign nationals in Serbia and Kazakhstan, as well as “ꦍpotentially compromising material” contained on his infamous laptop, according to their letter.
In a series of exclusives in October 2020, The Post first reported on emails from Hunter Biden’𒐪s laptop after the first son left it at a Delaware computer repair shop a year earlier. The reports raised concerns about the lucrative payouts he received and wheth🍨er his father helped groom and facilitate those relationships.
The White House, meanwhile, has said Presiden༒t Biden has not spoken to Hunter regarding h🍎is foreign business relationships and vowed not to get involved in the probe.
“The president has never had a conversation with the Department of Justice about any investigations inꦡto any member of his family,” press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters last week.
In December 2020, one month after his father defeated President Donald Trump to win the White House, Hunter Biden confirmed the probe into his taxes.
“I take this matter very seriously but I am confident ꦕthat a professional and objective review of these matters will demonstrate that I handled my affairs legally and appropriately, including with the benefit of prof🃏essional tax advisors,” Hunter Biden said in a statement issued by the Biden-Harris transition team.
President-elect Biden also said at the time he was “confident” that his son had committed no wrongdoing — despite The Post’s reporting that Hunter had introduced a top executive at Burisma to the then-vice president less than a year before the elder Biden pressured Ukrainian government officials to fire a prosecutor investigating the company.
