Joe Biden’s Corruption: Ukraine, bribery, and Burisma Holdings

WASHINGTON, DC: It is an established fact that Hunter Biden received $83,000 a month from Burisma Holdings for almost 5 years. A total of close to $6 million dollars. The payments only stopped in April of this year. And, coincidentally, just as Biden began his 2020 Presidential campaign. The open question is how much US taxpayer money did Burisma receive in return.

We know that in 2016 Biden shepherded a $50 million dollar payment to stimulate natural gas production in Ukraine.

Russia is the principal energy supplier in Ukraine

Burisma holdings was the principal group extracting natural gas in Ukraine. There is only one catch. Ukraine has very limited natural gas reserves. They are rich in coal, but natural gas from domestic sources accounts for less than 2% of energy use in Ukraine.


Ninty-five percent of all Ukrainian energy comes from Russia. Just as all of Eastern Europe receives 90 – 95% of its energy from Russia.  Western Europe, including Germany, receives the vast majority of their energy from, yes you guessed it, Russia. Mostly natural gas shipped in pipelines across Europe comes from Russia.


That dependence, especially in Ukraine, is not going to change for decades, if ever.

Biden’s bribery scheme in Ukraine

So why the big push to boost natural gas production in a country that doesn’t have much natural gas, to begin with. Because Hunter Biden was on the board of Burisma holdings. It is fair to assume that most, if not all of the $50 million in taxpayer money allocated for Ukrainian natural gas, went to Burisma.

Whatever the total Burisma received, it amounts to bribery, plain and simple. Hunter Biden gets $6 million dollars spread over 5 years from Burisma. Burisma gets $50 million in U.S. taxpayer money for the development of natural gas. That a pretty good return on investment. Spend $6 dollars to get $50.

Or in this case, bribe Hunter Biden with $6 million dollars and have Joe Biden facilitate a $50 million payment in return.

Steve Hilton’s timeline proving Hunter and Joe Biden’s corruption

The outlines and dates of Joe Biden’s unseemly arrangements in Ukraine were laid out beautifully by Steve Hilton on Fox News.

In early 2014 Hunter Biden’s friend Devon Archer joins the board of Burisma Holdings. On April 16th Archer meets with Vice President Joe Biden. On April 18th Hunter Biden is appointed to the board of Burisma Holdings. Three days later, on April 21st VP Biden announces a “US cash for Ukrainian Gas” proposal to buy $50 million dollars in Ukrainian natural gas.


At the same time, Burisma Holdings pays Hunter Biden’s law firm $300,000 to handle their legal affairs. Then Burisma hires John Kerry’s former Chief of Staff David Leiter to conduct lobbying on behalf of Burisma and Ukrainian natural gas. It pays Leiter’s consulting group, ML Strategies, $90,000.

Leiter makes $3,000 contributions, in three  $1,000 payments, to Democrat Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey and New Hampshire Senator Jean Shaheen. Shaheen and Markey write a letter to President Obama supporting a “cash for gas” relationship with Ukraine and calling for an expansion of Ukrainian natural gas exploration.

Remember, Russia is the region’s biggest energy producer, including natural gas.  Today’s headlines are showing that Denmark has approved a Russia to Germany gas pipeline that fully bypasses Ukraine and Poland.

Burisma gets a huge windfall for their investment in Hunter Biden

Burisma releases a press release praising Markey and Shaheen’s letter. Leiter also makes three $1,000 contributions to Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal. Blumenthal immediately announces his support for the Ukrainian “cash for gas” initiative. The Initiative passes Congress and the $50 million is sent to Ukraine.

How much of that money went to Burisma Holdings? Isn’t this overt bribery by the Vice President of the United States? How much more money was spent on natural gas in Ukraine in subsequent years? Why is this off-limits to any form of substantive investigation?

In 2016 Biden makes his infamous trip to Ukraine where he threatens the government there with the loss of $1 billion in American aid if they don’t fire the Ukrainian Prosecutor Victor Shokin. Shoken was looking into Burisma Holdings, and Hunter Biden.

As Biden said in his video confession: “Well son of a bitch”. The Prosecutor was fired. This isn’t just quid pro quo. This is bribery. Actual high crimes and misdemeanors.

The Unz Review lays out the story from inside Ukraine

A recent article in The Unz Review by the excellent investigative reporter Israel Shamir entitled: The Plundering of Ukraine by Corrupt American Democrats lays out what happened in more detail. In an interview with former well connected Ukrainian official Oleg Tsaryov, who is now living in exile in Crimea, Tsaryov states emphatically:

“Joe Biden was number one. During the Obama presidency, Biden was the US proconsul for Ukraine, and he was involved in many corruption schemes. It is a story of ripping the US taxpayer and the Ukrainian customer off for the benefit of a few corrupt politicians, American and Ukrainian. And it is a story of Kyiv regime and its dependence on the US and IMF.

Ukraine does have a few midsize deposits of natural gas, sufficient for domestic household consumption.

The cost of its production was quite low, and the Ukrainians became comfortable paying pennies for their gas. Actually, it was so cheap to produce that Ukraine could provide all its households with free gas for heating and cooking, just like Libya did.

Despite low consumer price, the gas companies (like Burisma) had very high profits and very little expenditure.” – The Unz Review

The 2014 coup and Burisma’s rise to power and influence

“After the 2014 coup, IMF demanded to raise the price of gas for the domestic consumer to European levels, and the new president Petro Poroshenko obliged them. The prices went sky-high. The Ukrainians were forced to pay many times more for their cooking and heating, and huge profits went to coffers of the gas companies. Instead of raising taxes or lowering prices, President Poroshenko demanded the gas companies pay him or subsidize his projects. He said that he arranged the price hike; making him a partner.” – The Unz Review

 “Burisma Gas company had to pay extortion money to the president Poroshenko. Eventually, its founder and owner Mr. Nicolai Zlochevsky decided to invite some important Westerners into the company board of directors hoping it would moderate Poroshenko’s appetites.

He brought in Biden’s son Hunter, John Kerry, and Polish ex-President Kwasniewski. Nonetheless, it didn’t help him.” – The Unz Review

President Poroshenko, Victor Shaken and Joe Biden’s ultimatum

“Poroshenko became furious that the fattened calf may escape him, asking Attorney General Shokin to investigate Burisma, all the while trusting some irregularities would emerge. AG Shokin immediately discovered that Burisma had paid these ‘stars’ between 50 and 150 thousand dollars per month each just for being on the list of directors. This is illegal by the Ukrainian tax code. These graft payments are not a legitimate expenditure.”

“At that time Biden the father entered the fray. He called Poroshenko and gave him six hours to close the case against his son. Otherwise, one billion dollars of the US taxpayers’ funds won’t pass to Ukraine’s corrupt ruling class. Zlochevsky, the Burisma owner, paid Biden well for this conversation. Biden receiving between three and ten million dollars, according to different sources.”

Shokin is fired, Burisma cashes in, Ukraine falls apart

“AG Shokin said he can’t close the case within six hours and Poroshenko sacks him, installing Mr. Lutsenko in his stead. Lutsenko was willing to dismiss the case of Burisma, but he also could not do it in a day, or even in a week. Biden, as we know, could not keep his trap shut. By talking about the pressure he put on Poroshenko, he incriminated himself.”

“Meanwhile, Shokin gave evidence that Biden put pressure on Poroshenko to fire him.”

 

As the Unz Report reporter Israel Shamir writes:

“Oleg Tsaryov had been a leading and popular Ukrainian politician before the 2014 putsch; he stayed in Ukraine after President Yanukovych’s flight; ran for the Presidency against Mr. Poroshenko, and eventually had to go to exile due to multiple threats to his life. During the failed attempt to secede, he was elected the speaker of the Parliament of Novorossia (South-Eastern Ukraine). He lives in the pleasant seaside town of Yalta. Tsaryvov still has many supporters in Ukraine, and is a leader of the opposition to the Kyiv regime.”

The firing of Victor Shaken is only the tip of the iceberg

While Tsaryvov may hold views that are not in keeping with the Neo-con policy of separating Ukraine from its centuries-old ties with Russia, he is a respected figure. There will be much more on what he reveals in future articles here on CDN.

The confluence of events in Ukraine has been a trail of criminality, bribery, and a CIA coup that has left the country divided and at war with itself and its neighbor Russia.

It has also left the Biden’s infinitely more wealthy in a bribery scam that’s nothing to do with Donald Trump interfering in the 2020 election.

It has to do with uncovering the truth about Joe Biden’s corruption. The history of the Obama Administrations very unfortunate intervention in Ukraine. Perhaps most ominously, the increasingly clear and mounting evidence of Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election.

There is much that needs sunlight in this sordid affair. Let’s hope this is something John Durham and William Barr will look at as their investigation expands.