A top executive for the Ukrainian energy firm Burisma who allegedly bribed then-Vice President Joseph R. Biden with a $5 million payment in 2016 referred to Mr. Biden as the “big guy,” according to a secret FBI memo involving a paid informant.
The Burisma executive’s nickname for Mr. Biden mirrors a claim by a former Biden family associate who in 2020 described a payout scheme for a business deal with a Chinese energy company, in which 10% of the profits would be held “for the big guy. ” The “big guy,” the associate said, was Mr. Biden.
A source familiar with the FBI memo confirmed to The Washington Times that the Burisma executive identified Mr. Biden as the “big guy,” involved in the bribery scheme.
House lawmakers reviewed the FBI memo as part of their broad investigation into the Biden family’s web of lucrative foreign business deals that appeared to revolve around Mr. Biden’s role as vice president and later, as a likely candidate for president in 2020.
The memo was sent three years ago to the U.S. attorney in Delaware who is investigating President Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, for crimes related to tax fraud and a gun purchase.
Mr. Biden last week called the Burisma executive’s bribery claims “malarky,” and the president has repeatedly denied any involvement or knowledge in his family’s business deals.
The FBI memo has spurred a new round of subpoenas for bank account records belonging to Biden associates, as investigators on the House Government and Accountability Committee try to determine the extent of Mr. Biden’s involvement. The Oversight panel in the coming days will also view additional FBI memos related to the Burisma bribery allegation, a source told The Times.
The probe involves six U.S. banks where the money was distributed and 20 “shell” companies that the GOP believes were used to conceal the business schemes.
The “trusted” and “highly credible” FBI informant in the Burisma bribery memo said energy company executives paid the $5 million between 2015 and 2016 to solicit Mr. Biden’s help in thwarting a Ukrainian prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, who was investigating Burisma.
Burisma paid an additional $5 million to Hunter Biden, who was serving on Burisma’s board at the time and was receiving a $1 million annual salary at the energy company, the informant said. The scheme was concealed using multiple bank accounts, the Burisma executive told the FBI informant.
The “big guy” reference to Mr. Biden in the FBI memo is among multiple times the nickname has surfaced in the ongoing investigation of the Biden family business deals.
Emails on a discarded laptop computer owned by Hunter Biden, and leaked to the media, showed a message from Biden family associate and British national James Gilliar outlining how the profits would be divided up from a 2017 deal with CEFC, a Chinese energy company with ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
Mr. Gilliar included in his proposed payout plan, “10 held by H for the big guy?” According to former Biden associate Tony Bolulinski, “H” stood for Hunter Biden and the line referenced Hunter Biden reserving 10% of the profits from the deal for his father, who had concluded his vice presidential term months earlier.
The “big guy” label was used again by Mr. Gilliar in a 2020 message, weeks before the presidential election, according to the New York Post.
The message was sent by a panicked Mr. Gulliar to an unnamed person in response to a New York Post story about the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop, published in October 2020.
In the message, provided to Congressional investigators by a whistleblower, Mr. Gilliar said he believed the emails exposed in Hunter Biden’s laptop computer would not hurt Mr. Biden if he won the presidential election because “they would just let sleeping dogs lie.”
If Mr. Biden lost, Mr. Gilliar said, “I don’t think that the Big Guy really cares about that because he’ll be too busy focusing on all the other sndash;t he is doing.”
Democrats on the House Oversight panel say the GOP effort to investigate Mr. Biden is politically motivated and groundless.
The chairman of the panel, Rep. James Comer, Kentucky Republican, said he believes the foreign deals may undermine the president and pose a threat to national security. Mr. Comer said he believes the Biden family and their associates may have pocketed up to $20 million in profits from business deals conducted with China, Russia, Ukraine and other countries during Mr. Biden’s second term as vice president, leading up to his bid for the presidency in 2020.
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.