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Hunter Biden
Vice Chairman of the National Railroad Passenger Corporation
In office July 26, 2006 – January 29, 2009
Nominated by	George W. Bush
President	George W. Bush Barack Obama
Succeeded by	Jeffrey R. Moreland
Personal details
Born	Robert Hunter Biden (1970-02-04) February 4, 1970 (age 54) Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouses	Kathleen Buhle ​ ​(m. 1993; div. 2017)​ Melissa Cohen ​ ​(m. 2019)​
Domestic partner	Hallie Olivere (2016–2019)
Children	3
Parent	Joe Biden
Relatives	See Biden family
Alma mater	Georgetown University (B.A.) Yale Law School (J.D.)
Profession	Lawyer

Robert Hunter Biden (born February 4, 1970) is an American lawyer and the second son of former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and his first wife, Neilia Biden. He is a partner at Rosemont Seneca Partners, LLC, and is Counsel to Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, a New York-based law firm.

Early life and education

Biden was born in Wilmington, Delaware, the younger son of former U.S. Senator and Vice President Joe Biden, and his first wife, Neilia (née Hunter). His mother and younger sister, Naomi Christina Biden, were killed in an automobile crash on December 18, 1972, in which he and his brother, Beau, were seriously injured. He and his brother encouraged their father to marry again, and Jill Jacobs became Hunter and Beau's stepmother in 1977. Their half-sister, Ashley Blazer Biden, was born on June 8, 1981.

Biden received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Georgetown University and a Juris Doctor from Yale Law School. After graduating from college, he was a member of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps Northwest, where he met his first wife.

He is a member of the bar in the state of Connecticut.

Career

Early positions

Hunter Biden was appointed by Bill Clinton to serve in the United States Department of Commerce under Secretaries Norman Mineta and William M. Daley. He was director of E-commerce policy issues in the Department of Commerce, a position he held from 1998 to 2001.

On May 16, 2006, Biden was nominated by President George W. Bush to the board of directors of Amtrak. He was confirmed unanimously on July 26, 2006, by the U.S. Senate for a term of five years, and was the vice-chair of the board until January 29, 2009.

From 2001 to 2008, Biden was a founding partner of Oldaker, Biden, and Belair, LLP, a Washington DC-based lobbyist firm and law firm.

During this period, He also served as a partner and board member of the mergers and acquisitions firm Eudora Global. Biden was chief executive officer, and later chairman, of the hedge fund Paradigm Global Advisors, founded in 1991 by Dr. James Park. At MBNA, a major US bank, Biden was employed as a senior vice president.

U.S. Navy Reserve

In May 2013, Biden was selected as a direct commission officer in the U.S. Naval Reserve, a program that allows civilians with no prior service to receive a restricted line officer's commission after attending a two-week class covering topics such as military history, etiquette, and drill and ceremony, in lieu of boot camp. Because Biden was past the cut-off age for the program, he needed a waiver. Biden received a second waiver because of past drug use and drug-related arrests. One month after commissioning, Biden tested positive for cocaine use and was discharged from the Navy reserve in February 2014.

Burisma Holdings

On April 18, 2014, Burisma Holdings announced Biden's appointment to its board of directors in a press release. Burisma is the largest non-governmental natural gas producer in Ukraine; it was incorporated in 2006 and is based in Cyprus – a European tax haven.Hunter Biden stepped down from the board when his term expired in April 2019. In September 2019, it was reported that the Ukrainian government will reopen two corruption cases against Burisma which were dropped by "shady" prosecutors.

Bohai Harvest

Biden is on the board of Bohai Harvest RST (also known as BHR Partners) which, according to reporting in The Intercept, invested in Face++, a mobile phone app built by the Chinese government to introduce a mass surveillance state and spy on its citizens. The application has been used to spy on Muslims in China's western province of Xinjiang, where an estimated 1 million Muslims are being held in “re-education” camps, providing government authorities access to data that shows personal information. The website said the company has the support of the state-owned Bank of China. Bohai Harvest has also partnered with a subsidiary of China's conglomerate HNA Group.

According to Peter Schweizer, Bohai Harvest "became an “anchor investor” in the IPO of China General Nuclear Power Corp., a state-owned energy company involved in the construction of nuclear reactors. In 2016, the US Justice Department would charge CGN with stealing nuclear secrets from the United States". Bohai Harvest also "joined forces with a subsidiary of Chinese state-owned military aviation contractor Aviation Industry Corporation of China to buy American precision-parts manufacturer Henniges."

Hunter Biden partnered with James Bulger, son of former Massachusetts state Senate President William Bulger. According to The Intercept, business registration filings in China list Hunter Biden and James Bulger as key officials at Bohai Harvest.

Peter Schweizer, author of Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends, claimed that "In December 2013 Hunter Biden, son of Joe Biden, travels with his father aboard Air Force Two to Beijing. ... Shortly after they return to the U.S., Hunter Biden’s firm receives a $1 billion private equity deal from the Chinese government. It later gets increased to $1.5 billion."

Other roles

Biden served as honorary co-chair of the 2008 Obama-Biden inaugural committee and is a former board member of the CSIS Executive Council on Development and the National Prostate Cancer Coalition.

As of 2013 Biden was Chairman of the Board of the World Food Program USA. In addition to holding a directorship on the Board of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, he sits on the Chairman's Advisory Council for the National Democratic Institute (NDI). NDI is a project of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Biden is a member of the President's Advisory board of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington; and a member of the board of the Israel Idonije Foundation.

Personal life

In 1993, Biden married Kathleen Buhle, and together they have three daughters. In 2015, Biden and Kathleen separated, and they filed for divorce in 2016.

In 2016 he began dating Hallie Olivere, his former sister-in-law and the widow of his brother, Beau. The pair were reported to have split in 2019. In May 2019, Biden married Melissa Cohen, a filmmaker from South Africa.

See also

• Joe Biden presidential campaign, 2020

References

1. ^ All in the family: Hunter Biden Archived September 30, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, The Iowa Independent, Washington, DC: The American Independent News Network, November 23, 2007, Waddington, L., Retrieved May 6, 2014.
2. ^ Hunter Biden quits lobbyist work, ABC.com, New York, NY: ABC News Internet Ventures, September 13, 2008, Hoppock, J., Retrieved May 7, 2014.
3. Phelps, Jordyn; Saenz, Arlette (August 25, 2015). "Hunter Biden Denies Ashley Madison Account Is His". ABC News.
4. ^ Friends of the World Food Program Board of Directors Archived July 28, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, World Food Program USA, Washington, DC: World Food Program USA, Undated.
5. Connelly, Kevin (August 28, 2008). "Biden shows more bark than bite". BBC News. London, England: BBC. Retrieved May 7, 2014.
6. Broder, John M. (August 28, 2008). "Biden Opens New Phase With Attack on McCain". The New York Times. New York City: New York Times Company. Retrieved May 7, 2014.
7. Seelye, Katharine Q. (August 24, 2008). "Jill Biden Heads Toward Life in the Spotlight". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 10, 2008. Retrieved August 25, 2008.
8. ^ Strasburg, Jenny; Weidlich, Thorn (January 31, 2007). "Lobbyist Hunter Biden is sued on Paradigm purchase (Update1)". Bloomberg. New York City: Bloomberg L.P. Retrieved May 7, 2014.
9. Who is Hunter Biden?, CNN
10. "Amtrak Board Names Thomas Carper of Illinois as Chairman; Former Chairman Donna McLean becomes Vice Chairman" (Press release). Amtrak. January 30, 2009. Retrieved February 23, 2009.
11. LOBBYING FIRM - OLDAKER, BIDEN & BELAIR, LLP
12. Executive profile: Robert Hunter Biden Bloomberg BusinessWeek, New York, NY: Bloomberg L.P., Undated.
13. Cooper, Helene (October 16, 2014). "Biden's Son 'Embarrassed' Over Navy Ouster". New York Times. Retrieved October 17, 2014.
14. C. Baldor, Lolita (November 9, 2012). "VP Biden's son joins Navy Reserve". Navy Times. Retrieved October 16, 2014.
15. "Hunter Biden, VP Biden's son, to be commissioned in Navy Reserves". NBC News. November 9, 2012. Retrieved October 16, 2014.
16. Barnes, Julian (October 17, 2014). "Biden's Son Hunter Discharged From Navy Reserve After Failing Cocaine Test". Wall Street Journal. New York City: Dow Jones & Company. Retrieved October 17, 2014.
17. Nelson, Colleen McCain; Barnes, Julian E. (October 16, 2014). "Biden's Son Hunter Discharged From Navy Reserve After Failing Cocaine Test". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved May 3, 2019.
18. Seddon, Max (May 14, 2014). "Biden's Son, Polish Ex-President Quietly Sign On To Ukrainian Gas Company". Buzzfeed. New York City.
19. "Hunter Biden [son of US VP Joe Biden] joins the team of Burisma Holdings [Ukraine gas producer]" (Press release). Burisma Holdings. May 12, 2014. Archived from the original on July 8, 2014. Retrieved May 13, 2014.
20. "Vice President Joe Biden's son joins Ukraine gas company". BBC News. London, England: BBC. May 14, 2014.
21. "Another Biden Has Waded Into the Ukraine Crisis - The vice president's son has taken a new role in the country's energy industry". National Journal. Washington DC: Atlantic Media. May 13, 2014.
22. Vogel, Kenneth P.; Mendel, Iuliia (May 1, 2019). "Biden Faces Conflict of Interest Questions That Are Being Promoted by Trump and Allies". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
23. https://www.thedailybeast.com/ukraine-likely-to-reopen-probe-of-hunter-biden-firm-sources
24. ^ "Chinese Fund Backed by Hunter Biden Invested in Technology Used to Surveil Muslims". The Intercept. May 3, 2019.
25. "Joe Biden's son invested in Chinese app that spies on Muslims, as US condemns China over 'concentration camps'". Fox News. May 4, 2019.
26. Schweizer, Peter (May 11, 2019). "The troubling reason why Biden is so soft on China". New York Post.
27. Rubinstein, Adam (April 10, 2018). "Peter Schweizer: China Seeks Influence Through Proxies, Trump's Adult Children". The Weekly Standard. New York City: News Corp.
28. Viswanatha, Aruna (March 15, 2018). "Author Alleges China Used Business Deals to Influence Families of Mitch McConnell, Joe Biden". The Wall Street Journal. New York City: Dow Jones & Company.
29. WFP USA: The Philippines and honoring Bob Dole (video), YouTube, World Food Program USA, December 16, 2013.
30. The feed: December edition: Final helping: Philippines, World Food Program USA, Washington, DC: World Food Program USA, December 18, 2013.
31. "NDI Chairman's Council". National Democratic Institute. Retrieved June 10, 2019.
32. "Inside Hunter and Kathleen Biden's divorce". Page Six. March 2, 2017.
33. Marsh, Julia (April 14, 2017). "Hunter and Kathleen Biden finalize divorce". Page Six.
34. Pearl, Diana (March 2, 2017). "Hallie Biden's Father Says He Supports Her Relationship with Hunter Biden, Her Late Husband's Brother". People.
35. Nguyen, Tina (May 1, 2019). "Hunter Biden Has Reportedly Broken Up with His Late Brother's Wife". Vanity Fair.
36. Heil, Emily (June 12, 2019). "Hunter Biden's messy personal life is back in the news. Will it cause political headaches for his dad?". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 13, 2019.
37. Meredith Newman (July 1, 2019) "Hunter Biden talks about his addiction, 'I was in that darkness' ", Delaware News Journal
38. Mark Moore (August 1, 2019) "Biden tweets photo of Hunter Biden with new wife Melissa Cohen", New York Post

External links

• World Food Program USA: The Philippines and honoring Bob Dole (video)
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Much-referenced May 2019 story in The New York Times on Bidens, Burisma, and possible appearance of conflict-of-interest
• Much-referenced July 2019 profile in The New Yorker

• 1970 births
• Living people
• American Roman Catholics
• Biden family
• Connecticut lawyers
• Georgetown University alumni
• People from Wilmington, Delaware
• Lawyers from Washington, D.C.
• Yale Law School alumni
• American people of English descent
• American people of Irish descent
• American people of French descent
• Catholics from Delaware