Hunter Biden ‘sent money to people with ties to Eastern European prostitution,’ GOP report alleges

Hunter Biden allegedly sent ‘thousands of dollars’ to people who may have been involved in Eastern European prostitution and sex trafficking rings, according to report released on Wednesday by Senate Republicans.

The report cited unspecified records which indicate that Biden ‘has sent funds to non-resident alien women in the United States who are citizens of Russia and Ukraine and who have subsequently wired funds they have received from Hunter Biden to individuals located in Russia and Ukraine.’

The 87-page report was released on Wednesday by the Republican-led Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the Finance Committee, and focuses on Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine. 

‘The records also note that some of these transactions are linked to what “appears to be an Eastern European prostitution or human trafficking ring”.’

The allegations were mentioned in a footnote to a part of the report that delves into ‘criminal concerns and extortion threats’ involving Hunter Biden and other members of the Biden family, according to the New York Post.

The report also mentions ‘extensive public reporting concerning Hunter Biden’s alleged involvement with prostitution services.’

‘Records on file with the Committees do not directly confirm or refute these individual reports,’ the report says.

‘However, they do confirm that Hunter Biden sent thousands of dollars to individuals who have either: 1) been involved in transactions consistent with possible human trafficking; 2) an association with the adult entertainment industry; or 3) potential association with prostitution.’

The report also revealed that Biden had a ‘financial relationship’ with the widow of a Moscow mayor who was ousted over corruption allegations. 

The report did not implicate Joe Biden in wrongdoing, focusing instead on his son Hunter, who it said ‘cashed in’ on his father’s position by joining the board of a Ukrainian gas company.

It also states that on Valentine’s Day in 2014, Hunter Biden’s company Rosemont Seneca Thornton received a $3.5 million wire from Elena Baturina, a Russian billionaire and the widow of former Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov. 

In 2010, Russia’s president fired Luzhkov as mayor over corruption allegations, which were never proven in court prior to his death last year.

Baturina, with an estimated fortune of $1.2 billion, is the richest woman in Russia. Much of her fortune was built with construction firm Inteco, which dominated the construction business in Moscow, thanks in part to lucrative government contracts.

The GOP report also states that between May 6, 2015 and December 8, 2015, Baturina sent 11 wires in the amount of $391,968.21 to a bank account belonging to BAK USA LLC, a technology startup based in Buffalo, New York. The transactions all listed ‘Loan Agreement’ in the payment details section.

Nine of the 11 transactions, totaling $241,797.14 were first sent from Baturina’s accounts to a Rosemont Seneca Thornton bank account, which then transferred to the money to BAK USA, according to the report.

BAK USA, which proposed to manufacture computer tablets in partnership with unnamed Chinese partners, was repeatedly touted by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo as a success story in his tax-break scheme to lure startups. 

The company filed for bankruptcy liquidation in 2019 with $39.4 million in debts and just $147,000 in assets. It’s unclear what connection Hunter Biden or his firm had to the now-defunct company.

Joe Biden’s campaign did not immediately respond to an inquiry from DailyMail.com on Wednesday seeking comment about his alleged financial relationship with Baturina.

However, Biden’s campaign immediately panned the report, released six weeks before the election, as an effort by an ally of President Donald Trump’s to damage his election opponent. 

The campaign said the investigation was founded on ‘a long-disproven, hardcore rightwing conspiracy theory’ and, even before the report was released, issued a detailed statement aiming to rebut point-by-point allegations that it said had long been debunked by media organizations as well as by U.S. and Ukrainian officials. 

Hunter Biden’s work in Ukraine remains a prominent line of attack in conservative circles heading into the election. 

Trump himself has repeatedly drawn attention to the issue, with his request for Ukraine to investigate the Bidens spurring an impeachment case against him. 

He’s continued to trumpet the claims even as his own administration has warned of a concerted Russian effort to denigrate Joe Biden and has asserted that a Ukrainian lawmaker who is involved in spreading an ‘unsubstantiated’ anti-Biden narrative has been an ‘active Russian agent’ for over a decade.

The investigation, from the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the Finance Committee, produced stark political divisions. 

Democrats have accused Republican Senator Ron Johnson, the Homeland Security chair, of a politically motivated initiative at a time when they say the committee should be focused on the pandemic response and other, less partisan issues.

Johnson has acknowledged in interviews that he hoped to complete the report before the election, telling The Associated Press last month that the ‘American people deserve the truth’ about his probe. 

But he has also been on the defensive over Democratic accusations that his investigation was serving to amplify Russian disinformation. He has denied receiving information from Andrii Derkach, the Ukrainian lawmaker singled out by intelligence officials.