An investment firm, with Hunter Biden and its founders, helped a Chinese company acquire a lucrative cobalt mine from an American company. The deal worth $2.65 billion was completed in 2016 when Joe Biden was serving as the vice president under Barack Obama.
Hunter Biden made secretive deals to give China an upper hand
With the help of two Americans and some Chinese partners, Hunter Biden established the firm named Bohai Harvest RST (BHR) in 2013. All three Americans combined controlled 30 percent of the Shanghai-based firm and served on the company’s board.
Meanwhile, the rest of the company was controlled by different investors in China. The lucrative mine was initially owned by an American firm, Freeport-McMoRan, which was acquired by a Chinese firm named China Molybdenum, with the help of Hunter Biden’s company.
NEW – Hunter Biden's firm helped Chinese conglomerate buy American-owned cobalt mine in $3.8 billion deal: Purchase helped China company gain world's largest deposit of precious metal used to make batteries for electric vehicles (Daily)
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) November 21, 2021
BHR firstly purchased $1.14 billion of shares of the mine from a Canadian mining company named Lundin Mining, which had ownership of the Congo mine. Later on, China Molybdenum bought the shares of the mines from Hunter’s BHR two years later.
With that purchase, the Chinese company successfully acquired 80% of the mine, with the remaining 20% in the hands of one of the Congo’s companies.
According to the New York Times, Hunter Biden controlled almost 10 percent of BHR, a claim which his lawyers busted. Chris Clark, Hunter Biden’s lawyer, said Biden had no interest in the firm anymore.
Likewise, the lawyer claimed Hunter Biden was not a board member in April 2020. However, Fox News’ investigations busted these claims, as according to the latest records, Hunter Biden had 10 percent shares in BHR through his company Skaneateles LLC.
Cobalt acquisition will help China in the competitive electric cars market
Cobalt is one of the major ingredients in electric cars batteries; both the USA and China are supposed to be competitors in acquiring more of this chemical.
Joe Biden has often warned about Chinese dominance in Cobalt and called it resistance in America’s attempt in shifting from gasoline to electric cars. Yet, his own son has been busy helping China obtain more Cobalt, at the expense of US interests.
Although the former board members of BHR acknowledged the sale, they denied the involvement of Hunter Biden and other American owners. According to the former board member of the company, the money was deposited into the company’s operating fund and none of the owners got any profit from the sale.
you can share the NYT article on Hunter Biden's Chinese firm investing in a Congolese cobalt mine that was published today, or you could share the one from the Washington Free Beacon published pre-election in January 2020, back when it mattered much more.https://t.co/I4jo52bv1d
— Jerry Christmas 🎄🎅🏽 (@JerryDunleavy) November 20, 2021
While it still remains unclear how the Chinese company got in touch with the BHR, the story will unfold once a proper investigation is launched.
Meanwhile, the current executives at BHR did not respond to requests for comments. The spokesman of China Molybdenum said the company is neither aware of Hunter Biden, nor of his involvement in BHR.
