By ED MORRISSEY | Hot Air.Com
Joe Biden might enjoy improved electoral math these days,
but the
math around his family’s fortunes doesn’t add up at all — and it’s not
just Hunter, either. Politico’s Ben Schreckinger has spent months tracking how
Biden’s relatives got wealthy on their connections to the new Democratic
frontrunner, including Joe’s younger brother James, who finds himself in the
middle of a meltdown at a hospital firm. James Biden has been accused of
running out on a personal loan of $650,000 after promising his older brother
would arrange for a big influx of “Middle East money” that never materialized.
An FBI raid in January uncovered a strange tale of
corporate favor-seeking that left Americore executives burnt:
The
raid of an Americore Health hospital represented a deepening of the legal
morass surrounding James Biden’s recent venture into healthcare investing at a
time when questions about the business dealings of Joe Biden’s relatives, and
their alleged connection to the former vice president’s public service,
continue to dog his presidential campaign.
In
the weeks since the raid, two small medical firms that did business with James
Biden have claimed in civil court proceedings to have obtained evidence that he
may have fraudulently transferred funds from Americore “outside of the ordinary
course of business,” and a former Americore executive has told POLITICO that
James Biden had over half a million dollars transferred to him from the firm as
a personal loan that has not yet been repaid.
The
purpose of the Jan. 30 raid of an Ellwood City, Pa., hospital remains unclear,
and there is no indication it was related to the actions of Biden’s younger
brother, who has not been accused of criminal wrongdoing. Its owner, Americore,
has faced legal problems and allegations of mismanagement that are unrelated to
James Biden.
But
recent filings in ongoing legal proceedings, along with new accounts provided
to POLITICO by former Americore executives and others, point to potential
pitfalls for the former vice president, painting the fullest picture to date of
James Biden’s healthcare dealings and the ways in which they allegedly related
to his powerful older brother. In 2017 and 2018, James Biden was embarking on a
foray into healthcare investing, telling potential partners, including at
Americore, that his last name could open doors and that Joe Biden was excited
about the public policy implications of their business models, according to
court filings and interviews with former business contacts of James’s.
The FBI’s raid appears aimed more at the company’s
operations, which became so fraught at one point that it couldn’t meet its
payroll. How it got to that state is a tale told through the lawsuits and
through Schreckinger’s attempts to determine just what James Biden was
promising and what he actually delivered.
Three years ago, James began looking for opportunities in
the health-care markets, looking for financial partners who might benefit from
his connections to power. In Schreckinger’s telling, which should be read in
full, Biden sold himself as a key link to his older brother and his ability to
trade power for wealth. James arranged for Americore’s founder to meet Joe and
then convinced him to seek out a bridge loan while Joe and Jim got the infusion
of cash from Middle Eastern figures purportedly anxious to curry favor with the
former VP and presumed presidential candidate. At the same time, James got a
personal loan from Americore, presumably either some sort of advance on the
incoming investment or a benefit that Biden would repay when Americore was
flush with cash.
Unfortunately for everyone except the mysterious Middle
Eastern investors, the influx of cash to Americore never arrived. Now the firm
is in bankruptcy, and one of the assets on the books is apparently the
uncollected loan to James Biden, according to the lawsuits from its creditors.
It’s not the first time a company linked to James Biden has found itself in
financial distress — Schreckinger mentions two other lawsuits, one of which
remains ongoing — but Americore’s the first to attract the attention of law
enforcement for its collapse.
Assuming that the facts are correct, this reads like a
bunco scheme. A relative of a powerful politician tells a business owner that
he can find him new money through personal connections, gets the owner to sign
a loan, and then asks for a large personal loan himself. When the money doesn’t
show up, the supposed rainmaker skedaddles with the loot. If that’s in fact
what happened, James Biden’s biggest mistake might have been pulling this with
a publicly-traded company.
Kudos to Schreckinger and Politico for sticking with this
story, but it’s curious how incurious other media outlets have been about the
Bidens. Donald Trump made Hunter impossible to ignore, but the coverage of
Hunter has been weirdly sympathetic and defensive. In contrast, they have
barely asked any questions at all about James, even after the FBI raid on
Americore. The better Joe’s electoral math gets, one presumes the harder the
media will attempt to ignore the math around James.
