A longtime friend and former business partner of Hunter Biden will attempt to appeal his fraud conviction on Tuesday as a separate federal investigation into President Joe Biden’s son’s taxes and business dealings continues.
Devon Archer, who worked with Hunter Biden for the Rosemont Seneca Partners investment firm before both men joined the board of Ukrainian energy giant Burisma in 2014, was convicted in 2018 in connection with a fraudulent bond scheme aimed at swindling a Native American tribe, and he was sentenced to just over a year in prison in February 2022.
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Archer, who was also ordered by a Manhattan federal judge to forfeit more than $15.7 million and to join his co-defendants in paying $43.4 million in restitution to the victims of the fraud, appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and a trio of circuit judges will hear his argument Tuesday morning.
Judge Richard Sullivan, appointed to the appeals court by former President Donald Trump in 2018, Judge William Nardini, appointed to the court by Trump in 2019, and Judge Myrna Perez, appointed by Joe Biden in 2021, will hear Archer’s appeal.
Archer’s bid to stay out of prison comes as the Justice Department weighs indicting Hunter Biden and as Republicans in the House and Senate have ramped up their investigations into Hunter Biden, with GOP investigators often seeking records from or tied to Archer.
Archer expressed some remorse for his criminal securities fraud scheme in court in February 2022.
“I was doing too many things at once and not paying enough attention,” Archer said. “I have deep remorse for the victims of the crime."
The Justice Department had argued that Archer should be sentenced to 30 months in prison.
”Archer knowingly participated in numerous aspects of a scheme to defraud the Wakpamni Lake Community Corporation of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, into issuing more than $60 million in bonds, the proceeds of which the defendants used not for a promised annuity, but instead for their own personal use and to help build a financial services mega-company they would control,” prosecutors wrote.
The 2022 sentence, which was far less than what prosecutors wanted, came from Manhattan Judge Ronnie Abrams, who said the crime was “too serious” to allow Archer to dodge prison, arguing that “there’s no dispute about the harm caused to real people.”
Archer’s attorney, Matthew Schwartz, told the Washington Examiner last year, “Mr. Archer is obviously disappointed with today’s sentence and intends to appeal." The Supreme Court rejected an appeal from Archer in November 2021.
Republicans have long contended Hunter Biden's lucrative business dealings in Ukraine and China indicate he may have committed crimes related to foreign lobbying or money laundering, although multiple recent reports have indicated U.S. Attorney David Weiss, a Trump-appointed holdover and the Delaware prosecutor overseeing the case, may have narrowed his focus to Hunter Biden potentially committing tax fraud and lying on a federal gun form when purchasing a revolver.
Sens. Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) released a joint report in 2020, with much of its focus on then-Vice President Joe Biden’s role in helping guide the Obama administration’s Ukraine policy while Hunter Biden held a lucrative position on the board of Burisma. Archer figured prominently in the report.
“On April 16, 2014, Vice President Biden met with his son’s business partner, Devon Archer, at the White House. Five days later, Vice President Biden visited Ukraine, and he soon after was described in the press as the ‘public face of the administration’s handling of Ukraine.’ The day after his visit, on April 22, Archer joined the board of Burisma,” Grassley and Johnson wrote. “Six days later, on April 28, British officials seized $23 million from the London bank accounts of Burisma’s owner, Mykola Zlochevsky. Fourteen days later, on May 12, Hunter Biden joined the board of Burisma, and over the course of the next several years, Hunter Biden and Devon Archer were paid millions of dollars from a corrupt Ukrainian oligarch for their participation on the board.”
Johnson and Grassley also accused Secretary of State Antony Blinken of “false testimony” this month and are demanding records from him after it was revealed he may have lied under oath when he denied exchanging emails with Hunter Biden. Archer figures in this controversy as well.
Blinken wrongly claimed to the Senate in December 2020 that he did not communicate via email with Hunter Biden during his time as deputy secretary of state under former President Barack Obama, even though he had, according to emails from Hunter Biden’s laptop hard drive, which were verified by the Washington Examiner.
On May 22, 2015, Hunter Biden emailed then-Deputy Secretary of State Blinken with a request to get together to get his "advice on a couple of things.” Blinken set up a meeting using an AOL address instead of his state.gov address.
“Have a few minutes next week to grab a cup of coffee? I know you are impossibly busy, but would like to get your advice on a couple of things. Best, Hunter," Hunter Biden wrote to Blinken.
Blinken responded, "Absolutely. I’m just about to land in Tokyo en route back D.C. from Burma. I’ll be in office from Tuesday on. Copying Linda in my office to find a good time. Look forward to seeing you. Tony.”
The emails were then forwarded in two different directions, with Hunter Biden sending the exchange to Archer, then a fellow member of the board of Burisma, while Blinken forwarded the emails to Linda Landers, his then-personal assistant.
The lunch between Blinken and Hunter Biden eventually took place on July 22, 2015.
Rep. James Comer (R-KY), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, has also focused on Hunter Biden’s dealings with Archer.
Comer in February demanded records from Hunter Biden and the president’s brother and Hunter Biden’s uncle, James, related to the duo’s overseas dealings with Chinese intelligence-linked businessmen. The congressman also told Hunter Biden to hand over all of his communications with Archer.
The same month, Comer demanded answers from a former top Serbian politician, Vuk Jeremic, who went on to be the president of the U.N. General Assembly, about his financial interactions with Joe Biden’s son and his work with Chinese energy conglomerate CEFC. Comer told Jeremic to hand over a host of communications with anyone from CEFC, as well as any records tied to Hunter Biden, James Biden, and Hunter Biden business associates such as Archer.
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The next month, after lengthy stonewalling, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen agreed to allow Comer to view suspicious transaction reports related to Hunter Biden. Comer had asked that Yellen hand over “all SARs generated in connection with” Hunter Biden, James Biden, their businesses, and Archer.
In his memoir Beautiful Things, Hunter Biden wrote that in 2013, his father, then vice president, asked his son's teenage daughter to join him on Air Force Two to Japan and then to Beijing, where he was meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Hunter Biden said he tagged along and wrote that "while we were in Beijing, Dad met one of Devon’s Chinese partners, Jonathan Li, in the lobby of the American delegation’s hotel, just long enough to say hello and shake hands."