Bidens’ $5M China loan part of ‘pay-to-play’ scheme: Sen. Grassley

A $5 million interest-free loan the Biden family received from a Chinese energy conglomerate in 2017 should have been probed by the FBI as part of a possible “pay-to-play” plan, Sen. Chuck Grassley told top law enforcement officials last week.

In an Oct. 13 letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Delaware US Attorney David Weiss, Grassley (R-Iowa) questioned whether the bureau is fully investigating corruption allegations against first son Hunter Biden and demanded a “full and unredacted FBI summary” of Hunter business partner Tony Bobulinski’s October 2020 FBI interview.

According to Grassley, Bobulinski told investigators that Hunter and first brother James Biden were contracted to assist CEFC China Energy “with potential business deals and investments while Joe Biden was Vice President; however, that work remained intentionally uncompensated while Joe Biden was Vice President.

“After Joe Biden left the Vice Presidency, the summary makes clear that Hunter Biden and James Biden worked with CEFC and affiliated individuals to compensate them for that past work and the benefits they procured for CEFC,” Grassley went on. “According to the summary, Hunter Biden, James Biden and their business associates created a joint venture that would serve as a vehicle to accomplish that financial compensation, and that arrangement was made sometime after a meeting in Miami between Hunter Biden and CEFC officials in February 2017.”

In a July 26, 2017 email to Bobulinski — first revealed by The Post in October 2020 — CEFC executive Zhao Runlong wrote that the company “fully support the framework of establishing the [joint venture], based on their trust on BD [Biden] family.”

Zhao added that “5 million is lent to BD family in the 10 million charter capital … This 5 million loan to BD family is interest-free. But if the 5M is used up, should CEFC keep lending more to the family? If CEFC lends more, they need to know the interest rate for the subsequent loan(s).”

The $5 million was originally meant to be sent through the joint venture, dubbed SinoHawk and co-owned by Oneida, a holding company made up of five LLCs, two of which were controlled by Hunter and James Biden.

However, Grassley said, the money had not been sent at the time of Zhao’s email to Bobulinski, and “James Biden considered calling CEFC officials and threatening to withdraw Biden family support from future deals.”

The following month, in August 2017, $5 million was wired from “a company connected to CEFC” to Hudson West III, a company jointly owned at the time by Hunter Biden’s law firm Owasco and Coldharbour Capital LLC, which Grassley and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) tied to another CEFC executive, Gongwen Dong, in a September 2020 report.

The money, Grassley wrote last week, was later transferred to Owasco and James Biden’s own consulting company, the Lion Hall Group.

The first family’s arrangements with CEFC are among the most scrutinized of Hunter Biden’s overseas business interests after a May 13, 2017 email — also revealed by The Post in 2020 — showed that Bobulinski, Hunter Biden, and two other business partners planned split equity in a planned business venture with the company four ways.

According to the email, each of the foursome would get 20% of the shares in the new company, with 10% going to James Biden and the remaining 10% “held by H for the big guy?” – a phrase Bobulinski and another partner, James Gilliar, used to refer to Joe Biden.

The president has repeatedly denied ever discussing Hunter’s overseas business arrangements with his offspring, a stance that has come under scrutiny due to evidence gathered from the first son’s abandoned laptop.

“The Justice Department and FBI must come clean to Congress and the American people with respect to the steps they have taken, or failed to take, relating to the Hunter Biden investigation,” Grassley wrote.

The letter was sent one week after the Washington Post reported that investigators believe they have enough evidence to indict Hunter Biden on tax crime charges, as well as making a false statement about his drug use on a federal gun purchase form.