While the world was discussing the Bidens’ corruption in Ukraine, the topic has been all but banned in Ukraine, as officials there have been busy destroying evidence. Will there ever be accountability – on either side of the Atlantic?
Editorial
21st Century Wire
It’s been five years since the FBI opened an investigation into the criminal activity of Hunter Biden, and only now is the inquiry finally gaining momentum in the United States. After previously pleading guilty to minor tax charges, and agreeing to a plea deal on a firearms charge, he is hoping to avoid a much bigger case, one which could ensnare both him and his father, the 46th President of United States, Joseph R. Biden.
This is a story about multi-million dollar corruption scandal during his “business trips to Ukraine”. Hunter’s goal is clear – to get his father, who is also implicated in Ukrainian corruption during his tenure as vice president, out of harm’s way.
Thus far this year, there have been a series of hasty closures of cases in Ukraine relating to the Burisma scandal – the Ukrainian oil and gas company that paid millions of dollars to Hunter Biden, and on whose behalf Joe Biden threatened the Ukrainian President that if he did not fire the prosecutor who was investigating Burisma that the U.S. would withhold a $1 billion loan.
With all of this in the public domain, it should be relatively easy to get to the bottom of this case – by simply making a formal request to the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office, get access to the case files for members of the U.S. Congressional Oversight Committee, and then invite suspended Ukrainian prosecutors whose careers suffered as a result of the Burisma investigation to Congressional hearings. However, nothing is ever so straightforward in the world of high-powered politics, especially with so many personal, political and national reputations at stake.
It’s international racketeering by any other name, but for various reasons (some obvious and some not-so-obvious) the mainstream corporate media has managed to steer away from any deep investigation into the story.
How the world’s media discusses allegations of U.S. President’s corruption
The Biden family’s business dealings in Ukraine and influence peddling abroad remains one of the most popular topics for most of the world’s media, not least of all because of its direct bearing on the upcoming U.S. 2024 elections.
Few will be surprised that the Democrat-aligned partisan media have effectively closed ranks on this story in order to protect the party and the incumbent in the White House.
However, for official Washington, this explosive story can also be understood as a ‘national security’ issue: Concealing and downplaying Biden family corruption in Ukraine would be a priority for the Beltway establishment, as it could affect support for the current proxy war effort against Russia, not to mention the credibility of the U.S. and NATO in general.
Some influential American outlets like The Hill are now actively informing their readers about yet another accusation against the US Department of Justice for dragging out the case against Hunter Biden. According to congressmen and representatives of the IRS, the Department of Justice agreed to conclude a favorable plea agreement for Hunter on two tax charges only due to his status as the son of the president. Previously, an IRS official claimed that the Justice Department’s slow-walked its investigation which resulted in Hunter Biden never being charged with tax evasion charges dating back from 2014. At that time, he filed a false tax declaration in which he failed to report income from the Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings. Similarly, the DOJ has yet to charge him with “willful failure” to pay federal income taxes for 2017 and 2018.
The story gained more prominence in 2019 when personal attorney to Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, began his own investigation of corruption related to Hunter Biden’s work in Ukraine. Reaching out to numerous whistleblowers from Ukraine and traveling overseas to meet them in person, Rudy Giuliani gathered a lot of information which could lead to the Bidens being investigated for crimes. The extensive visual coverage of Giuliani’s investigation, produced by OANN White House correspondent Chanel Rion, proved to be beneficial for both domestic and international audiences. Through a series of three episodes entitled, “OAN Chanel Rion Investigates Biden’s Bribe Tapes,” Rion adeptly covered the entire story and conducted interviews with key figures in Ukraine and Eastern Europe related to the case. This comprehensive coverage provided valuable insights for viewers both in the United States and abroad. Those episodes are accessible on YouTube and this is essential to understand this very complex case.
France’s Le Point, one of the top three news weeklies in France, devoted a major article to the Republicans’ fight for a speedy investigation into Biden’s activities in Ukraine. Earlier it covered the scandal surrounding Hunter Biden’s laptop and possible corruption schemes involving him.
Al Jazeera, the largest news agency in the Middle East, is also following the start of impeachment proceedings against President Biden, and reminding their audience that one of the main reasons for the impeachment was Hunter Biden’s business activity in Ukraine. Earlier, the Qatari media paid special attention to the fact that Hunter Biden took a position on the board of directors of Burisma, having no experience in the energy sector, but at the same time having his father – the Vice President of the United States – behind his back.
Meanwhile, in Ukraine, there is little if any coverage about these high-profile U.S. legal proceedings. Likewise, you won’t find any material on the Bidens’ corruption schemes there – only short isolated news items mentioning the Democrats’ position. Why is that?
One reason could be that since hostilities between Ukraine and Russia began February 24, 2022, there has been virtually no independent or opposition media activity in Ukraine. All information, media outlets and TV channels have been consolidated in the “United Marathon”, which is under the direct control of the Office of the President, and shows only the information that is approved by the state curator from the authorities. Similar censorship has been introduced for Internet publications.
As for the judicial system of Ukraine, it has never really been independent. No matter who’s in power, important decisions of all judicial instances are made on a call from the Office of the President.This is the reason for the silence of the Ukrainian media. Kiev is sure that Zelensky classified the information on investigations against Burisma Group and Hunter Biden by his personal decision, guided by the desire to please Joe Biden. Being fully dependent on American assistance, the Ukrainian government was ready to cover up even such odious businessmen as Zlochevsky, the former minister of ecology and natural resources and owner of Burisma, who was on a criminal wanted list, in August his case was closed. Likewise with Kurchenko, a Ukrainian oligarch, on a criminal wanted list, staying in Moscow. All of these cased are being buried so that any information on the role of Biden Jr. in the corrupt actions of Burisma, as well as on bribes from the owners of the company to Biden Sr. would not become known to the public.
And this despite the fact that the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office as early as in 2014 possessed documents on the illegal deal on the sale of the oil depot in Kherson to oligarch Kurchenko, and the fact that the money paid to the members of the Board of Directors of Burisma was obtained by criminal means. Both Ukrainian and world media wrote about it.
In particular, Reuters wrote about the amount of 3.4 million US dollars, which was paid to the account of Rosemont Seneca company, which represented the interests of Hunter Biden, in the period from April 2014 to November 2015.
How Ukrainian authorities cover up those accused of corruption
In June 2020, it became known in Ukraine that representatives of Mykola Zlochevskyy, the owner of the Burisma gas production company, tried to bribe the heads of the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) investigations for 6 million US dollars. For this money, the officials were supposed to close the criminal proceedings against the criminal organization of Serhiy Kurchenko (a fugitive Ukrainian oligarch), in which Zlochevskyy was a suspect. Among the defendants in the case were Mykola Ilyashenko, a high-ranking representative of the State Tax Service; Andriy Kicha, legal director of Burisma; and Olena Mazurova, and former head of one of the departments of the State Fiscal Service.
For three years, the investigation of this high-profile case was characterized by secrecy and unexpected decisions of Ukrainian courts. On direct orders from the Office of the President, and despite the obviousness of the crime, a huge base of evidence (all persons involved in the transfer of bribes were long led and bugged) and catching them red-handed – one by one, the defendants began to evade responsibility.
The first case the Supreme Anti-Corruption Court ‘dealt’ with Olena Mazurova, who was released with two years probation. Next, the main accused was released – Zlochevsky’s assistant Andriy Kicha, who was supposed to directly transfer the money. In complete secrecy, the Ukrainian court considered his case, concurred with all the wording of Kicha’s agreement with the investigation , before releasing him with one year’s probation.
IMAGE: Ukrainian law enforcement intercepted cash bribe (Source: Ukrainian government)
And in August it was the turn of Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevskyy. The man behind the $6 million cash bribe was fined a paltry sum of 68,000 hryvnia (the equivalent of $1,500) and the case against him was closed. The bribe itself, as well as two sums of 500 and 160 million hryvnias (the equivalent of 18 million US dollars in total) were donated to the Ukrainian army.
How is it that in Ukraine, all cases related to Burisma end in termination of the investigation, instead of criminal convictions and years of imprisonment? The answer to this question is the same as to the question of why the Ukrainian media do not cover the scandal surrounding the Biden family’s corruption schemes.
If it was to be properly interrogated by the Ukrainian law enforcement and press, the Burisma case would certainly become an inexhaustible source of dirt on the incumbent US President, and his son. Still, despite the preponderance of evidence – like Hunter Biden’s five-year stint on the Board of Directors of Burisma, Burisma’s involvement in money laundering and the company’s untouchability for Ukrainian justice, regular transfers of funds from Zlochevsky’s accounts to companies serving Hunter Biden, as well as Joe Biden’s direct blackmail to President Poroshenko demanding to fire the Prosecutor General who went too far in the Burisma investigation, the FBI and Justice Department’s years-long concealment of information that each of the Bidens could have received at least one bribe from Zlochevsky in the amount of 5 million dollars, and at least 17 telephone conversations in the possession of the FBI during which the Bidens discussed corruption schemes in Ukraine with Mykola Zlochevsky…. there is still an unofficial media blackout on this scandal.
🚨BREAKING🚨
The FD-1023 form alleging then-Vice President JOE BIDEN was involved in a $5,000,000 bribery scheme with a Burisma executive has been released by @ChuckGrassley.
Read 👇 pic.twitter.com/Mc6dVIwdsG
— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) July 20, 2023
But instead of opening cases on these sordid episodes, America has to settle for Hunter’s charges of possessing a gun while addicted to drugs, and maybe charges relating to failing to pay income tax for two years. A stark contrast to the evidence that could not only lead to Joe Biden’s impeachment, but it also has the potential to redefine the domestic and international narrative which has shaped U.S. relations with Russia and Ukraine.
More than that, the full exposure of this case would show the full extent of how the government in Kiev is fully owned and operated by its external handlers in Washington and beyond.
IMAGE: Republicans on the House Oversight Committee released their first report on an investigation into President Biden and his family (Source: House.gov)
The Democratic Party top brass in the U.S. is doing everything possible to destroy any trace of Biden’s corruption schemes in Ukraine. Cases related to Burisma are being closed. All of the defendants in these cases are going free. In particular, our sources from Ukraine reported that before Zlochevskyi’s case was closed, his case was administratively merged with other cases, and evidence collected by prosecutors was deemed to be “irrelevant” and destroyed.
“Also, some of the materials may simply be lost when the folders from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office are merged,” a source told us on condition of anonymity. “So that if in the future someone wants to re-investigate the circumstances of the case, the evidence base will not be found. I would also not be surprised if in the new proceedings the status of someone previously held as a defendant was changed to that of a witness,” they added.
In conclusion
Another important thing: If the evidence of Hunter’s and his father’s guilt is not brought to light now during President Biden’s attempt to win re-election, this shameful page in their biography will continue to remain hidden from the public. It should go without saying that such an audacious cover-up would benefit neither the American nor Ukrainian peoples.
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