Lawmakers want to know how much money President Biden’s family and their business associates may have reaped from deals made in the years he served as vice president and beyond, and the trail begins at the Treasury Department’s dozens of suspicious activity reports for Biden-related business transactions.
Banking secrecy laws forbid the committee from discussing any of the data they have reviewed so far, but panel staff has endorsed media reports that U.S. banks flagged more than 150 business transactions just for Mr. Bidens son, Hunter Biden, and Mr. Biden’s brother, James Biden.
“That is a large number,” House Oversight and Accountability Committee spokesperson Jessica Collins said. “It doesn’t mean it’s illegal activity, but it means it could be suspicious.”
The House GOP’s examination of the Treasury records is part of an effort to determine whether the web of lucrative foreign business deals secured by the Bidens and their business associates has compromised President Biden and, subsequently, national security.
The deals were cut with foreign nationals from China, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan and other countries. The transactions date back to the years before Mr. Biden became president, including his time as vice president.
Republicans also want to know how the Biden family and their associates earned the money and whether it was an influence-peddling scheme. They also want to know if President Biden ever took a cut of the profits.
Mr. Biden has denied being involved or knowing anything about the business dealings of his son, brother and their associates.
The Treasury Department initially refused requests for the suspicious activity reports from Republicans on the House Oversight committee in 2022 when the GOP was in the minority.
The Republicans finally gained access to the reports when they took over the majority in January.
House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer, a Kentucky Republican, has begun mining the reports for bank account information the committee will use to further investigate the foreign business deals involving the first family and their network of business partners.
Bank documents obtained so far by Mr. Comer and made public earlier this month showed a Chinese Communist Party-backed oil company wired $3 million to Biden associate Rob Walker two months after Mr. Biden’s term as vice president ended. The records showed that Mr. Walker distributed the money amongst Biden family members and business associates. Biden family members received more than $1 million.
“We are going to continue to use bank documents and suspicious activity reports to follow the money trail to determine the extent of the Biden family’s business schemes, if Joe Biden is compromised by these deals, and if there is a national security threat,” Mr. Comer said.
The panel’s investigators have called on Hunter Biden, James Biden and several of their business associates to voluntarily provide them with records and documents related to their deals.
So far, only business associate Eric Schwerin has agreed to cooperate. The committee has the option of issuing subpoenas for the others.
Hunter Biden’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, dismissed the committee’s bid to uncover corruption through the Treasury’s suspicious activity reports or SARs.
He said banks often produce these reports over innocuous banking activity.
In 2021, banks generated more than 1.4 million suspicious activity reports but few led to evidence of criminal activity. According to the Banking Policy Institute, only about 4% of suspicious activity reports generate an investigation by law enforcement.
“Rep. Comer knows all too well that SARs reports are not uncommon,” Mr. Lowell, said in a statement to The Washington Times. “In fact, there have been more than 65,000 SARs that have been filed in Rep. Comer’s own congressional district since 2014. If Rep. Comer and his Republican colleagues on the Committee are so interested in these reports, they should be providing information to the public on the more than 6.8 million SARs filed in their congressional districts in the last nine years and answering questions about whether those filings included their family, friends, or associates.”
A financial institution generates a SAR if a transaction meets certain parameters that are detected by a computer algorithm, according to the Banking Policy Institute.
The algorithms are triggered by factors such as large-volume cash transactions or large transfers to a country where the banking customer does not typically do business.
According to the FDIC, banks are required to file a SAR if they suspect “a known or suspected violation of federal law.” Banks are watching for insider abuse, transactions aggregating $5,000 or more where a suspect can be identified, transactions aggregating $25,000 or more regardless of potential suspects, and transactions amounting to $5,000 or more that involve potential money laundering or violations of the Banking Secrecy Act, the FDIC rules state.
Tom Fitton, president of the conservative-backed watchdog group Judicial Watch, said while a SAR is not necessarily an indication of illegal activity, he believes Mr. Comer has already demonstrated that the Biden family was involved in a money laundering scheme
“It’s required tracking and doesn’t mean there’s fraud taking place,” Mr. Fitton said of the SARs. “But the information in it has raised additional questions about the Biden family’s relationship with the communist Chinese government.”
The information Republicans have uncovered prompted Mr. Comer’s panel to consider new legislation to strengthen federal ethics laws involving public officials and their families. The committee is also analyzing federal laws to determine if banks have the proper tools to detect and report potential money laundering activity.
On St. Patrick’s Day, reporters asked Mr. Biden about the bank records showing a $1 million payment to his son, brother and daughter-in-law, Hallie Biden, that appear to have originated from the Chinese Communist Party-backed oil company.
“That’s not True,” Mr. Biden responded.
Mr. Comer wrote to the White House last week, providing Mr. Biden with the list of bank transactions showing payments to Biden family members.
“The American people deserve honest and transparent answers from President Biden related to his family’s questionable foreign business deals,” Mr. Comer wrote to White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. “The committee requests that you, as President Biden’s press secretary, correct his March 17, 2023, statement that the evidence from the bank records is ‘not true’ or explain, in detail, which financial transactions in the chart below that he is disputing.”
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.