By Nick Pope
- Devon Archer, a former business associate of Hunter Biden, testified Monday that a company controlled by Kenes Rakishev, a Kazakh oligarch, wired a large sum of money to a Hunter-linked account weeks before or after Rakishev joined Archer, Hunter Biden and then-Vice President Joe Biden for dinner in the spring of 2014 in Washington, D.C, according to a transcript of Archer’s testimony released Thursday.
- The $142,300 that Rakishev’s company wired was then sent to a beneficiary of a car dealership the day after it was received so that Hunter Biden could buy a Porsche, according to the transcript.
- Archer called the transaction a “business matter” between the younger Biden and Rakishev, according to the transcript.
Devon Archer testified Monday that Kazakh oligarch Kenes Rakishev wired a large sum of money to a Hunter Biden-linked corporate account for the purchase of a Porsche around the time the oligarch met Joe Biden and his son for a 2014 dinner in Washington, D.C., according to a transcript of Archer’s Monday testimony.
A company controlled by Rakishev sent $142,300 to a corporate account linked to Archer and Hunter Biden on April 22, 2014, which then wired the funds to a beneficiary of a car dealership the next day so that Hunter could buy a Porsche, according to the transcript of Archer’s hearing released Thursday. Rakishev attended a dinner at Cafe Milano in Washington, D.C. with Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, Archer and several other wealthy foreign business associates of Hunter and Archer in the spring of 2014, Archer testified.
Rakishev is thought to be worth just under $1 billion, and he is considered one of Kazakhstan’s most influential businessmen, according to Forbes Kazakhstan.
The transfer was “for an expensive car,” Archer said, calling the transaction a “business matter” between Hunter Biden and Rakishev, according to the transcript. James Mandolfo, chief counsel for investigations for the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, clarified in subsequent questioning that the payment was for a Porsche, according to the transcript.
Archer could not recall the precise date on which the dinner occurred, but he said that it happened sometime in the spring of 2014. Hunter Biden and Rakishev also appear to have met at a Washington, D.C. hotel on Feb. 5, 2014, according to an open source database of the emails found on Hunter’s now-infamous laptop.
There is a photograph that reportedly shows Rakishev, Joe Biden, Hunter Biden and former Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Massimov together. That picture first surfaced in November 2019 on the website of the Kazakhstani Initiative on Asset Recovery, a Kazakh anti-corruption group. (RELATED: Biden Family ‘Brand’ Made People ‘Intimidated To Mess With’ Burisma, Devon Archer Testified)
Joe Biden delivered remarks in Kyiv, Ukraine, condemning Russia’s initial takeover of Crimea on the same day that the $142,300 wire was sent to the Hunter-linked account, according to a 2014 press release from the Obama White House and the transcript.
Rakishev is a known associate of Ramzan Kadyrov, a Chechen warlord and close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin who has supported Putin’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, according to a 2020 report by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and a 2015 report by The Associated Press.
Yelena Baturina, a former CEO of a large Russian real estate firm and the wife of the since-deceased mayor of Moscow, also attended the dinner in question in the spring of 2014, according to Archer’s testimony. An account linked to her wired a sum of about $3.5 million to a Hunter Biden-linked account in the weeks before or after the dinner occurred, but Archer said that this particular transfer was a part of a much larger “investment program” deal between Baturina’s interests and a real estate firm of Hunter Biden’s and Archer’s, according to the transcript.
Joe Biden has denied that he discussed Hunter’s overseas business dealings with his son, a claim that Republicans have disputed with escalating vigor as information surfaces from the House Oversight and Accountability Committee’s investigation suggesting that the elder Biden may have been more involved than he has claimed.
The White House did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
