THE INDEPENDENT
The embattled son of President Joe Biden is in legal hot water once again.
On Thursday, Hunter Biden was hit with nine tax charges in California, taking his slate of pending criminal counts up to 12 and adding further fire to the roaring scandal swirling around the first son.
In the indictment, which follows an investigation by special counsel and Donald Trump-appointee David Weiss, Hunter Biden is accused of engaging “in a four-year scheme to not pay at least $1.4m in self-assessed federal taxes he owed for tax years 2016 through 2019, from in or about January 2017 through in or about October 15, 2020, and to evade the assessment of taxes for tax year 2018 when he filed false returns in or about February 2020”.
The nine charges include two counts of filing a false return, one count of tax evasion, four counts of failing to pay taxes and two counts of failure to file taxes. He is facing up to 17 years in prison if convicted.
As well as detailing the taxes Hunter Biden allegedly avoided paying, the indictment also lays out in excruciating detail the president’s son’s alleged flamboyant – and highly embarrassing – spending habits.
It reveals how the scandal-plagued president’s son allegedly did have the cash to make the $1.4m tax payments he owed over a four-year period.
But, he allegedly chose to skip out on the payments to instead blow millions on a lavish lifestyle of “drugs, escorts and girlfriends” – including $27,000 in payments to a porn website.
“Between 2016 and October 15, 2020, the Defendant spent this money on drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing, and other items of a personal nature,” the indictment alleges.
As prosecutors put it: “In short, everything but his taxes.”
Hunter Biden ‘earned millions while dodging taxes’
According to the indictment, Hunter Biden earned more than $7m in total gross income between 2016 and 15 October 2020 – as well as an additional $1.2m in financial support from a mystery friend.
This included gross earnings of over $1.5m in 2016, $2.3m in 2017, $2.1m in 2018 and $1m in 2019.
In the roughly 10-month period in 2020, Hunter Biden also received around $188,000 in gross income.
This income came from multiple sources.
Firstly, Hunter Biden was serving on the board of Ukrainian industrial conglomerate Burisma and Chinese private equity fund CEFC China Energy – foreign business activity that has been seized upon by right-wing critics and used to decry claims of corruption within the Biden family.
Through this work, he was paid “millions” in compensation for negotiating and executing contracts and agreements, according to the DOJ. For example, he received around $2.3m from Burisma between 2016 and 2019.
Separately, Hunter Biden was also receiving money from an entertainment lawyer – described only as a “Personal Friend” – “to fund his extravagant lifestyle”.
This “substantial financial support” of more than $1.2m ran from January through 15 October 2020.
