Hunter Biden, son of the former Vice President, reportedly advocated for a Romanian businessman, Gabriel Popoviciu, during his father’s tenure, sparking controversy around potential unregistered foreign lobbying.
Newly released records suggest that Hunter Biden, who received over $1 million in wire transfers from Popoviciu, met with a State Department official in 2016 to discuss a corruption case against the real estate magnate, according to a new report from The Washington Free Beacon.
The House Oversight Committee’s recent report discloses that between November 2015 and June 2017, Popoviciu wired over $1 million to Hunter Biden while fighting corruption charges in Romania.
A detailed examination of emails and documents from Hunter Biden’s laptop indicates a March 2016 rendezvous with Hans Klemm, then U.S. ambassador to Romania, to talk about Popoviciu’s corruption case.
The records show that Biden and Klemm had met twice; once in November 2015 and then in March 2016.
Hunter Biden was affiliated with the law firm Boies Schiller Flexner at the time, and he collaborated with attorneys from the firm to push the U.S. embassy in Bucharest to get involved in Popoviciu’s case.
A September 1, 2015 email from Christopher Boies, a partner at Boies Schiller, informed Hunter Biden that his unidentified law partner was “best friends” with Hans Klemm, who was recently appointed the ambassador to Romania.
The House Oversight report discloses that the initial wire transfer of $59,900 from Popoviciu to Biden was made on November 9, 2015. Four days later, Hunter Biden and Michael Gottlieb, a partner at Boies Schiller, deliberated a meeting with Klemm and presented him with reports about the Popoviciu case, arguing that the corruption allegations were unfounded.
Emails suggest that Biden was present at the meeting, and his calendar records a meeting with Klemm at the Lapis restaurant in Washington, D.C., on March 30, 2016.
Correspondence indicates that Klemm was open to the reports and facilitated meetings between Biden’s team and Romanian officials.
On May 17, 2016, Gottlieb reached out to Klemm to arrange a meeting with Romania’s anti-corruption service, the DNA. Gottlieb informed Biden and others that “the USEMB [U.S. embassy] has primed this for us.”
Despite these activities, neither Hunter Biden nor Boies Schiller registered as lobbyists for Popoviciu, leading to further scrutiny.
Popoviciu was convicted of bribery in 2017 and sentenced to seven years in jail.
