White House HELPED Hunter Biden reach a Deal
Posted: Sat Jul 10, 2021 9:17 pm
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... ntial.html
The White House HELPED Hunter Biden reach a deal to keep buyers of his paintings listed for up to $500k confidential so they could 'avoid' ethics issues.
White House helped broker deal to shield the president's son from info about who is buying his work.
Former Office of Gov Ethics director Walter Shaub called the prices for his artwork 'grotesquely inflated' .
The exhibition creates a 'risk of influence-seekers funneling money to the Biden family'.
Hunter will be displaying and selling his artwork in New York City this fall
His art dealer Georges Berges has valued the work at between $75K and $500K
All sales will be kept confidential, despite his alleged corruption over prior business deals in Ukraine and China
The White House helped broker the deal that would allow buyers of Hunter Biden's paintings to remain confidential, despite widespread concerns it could lead to bribery and influence peddling.
The plan will allow Hunter Biden to forge ahead with his new career as an artist after a career change from a high-paid consultant on international deals, by also shielding him from the identities of those who purchase his pricey works.
The deal came about after Biden admin staffers reached out to Hunter's lawyers to forge a plan intended to 'avoid' ethics concerns and let the president's son pursue his new career.
But there are still questions over how the admin and his lawyers will stop individual buyers from reaching out to Hunter or someone revealing how much one of his paintings has been purchased for.
The idea is avoid a situation where he knew who was buying his work so he might be in the position to do them a favor – although it still provides an opportunity for unidentified individuals to shovel large sums to the president's son as he battles high living costs and legal fees.
'So instead of disclosing who is paying outrageous sums for Hunter Biden’s artwork so that we could monitor whether the purchasers are gaining access to government, the WH tried to make sure we will never know who they are.
'The idea’s that even Hunter won’t know, but the WH has outsourced gov ethics to a private art dealer. We’re supposed to trust a merchant in an industry that’s fertile ground for money laundering, as well as unknown buyers who could tell Hunter or WH officials?
Experts are already warning of the risks of influence peddling or at least the appearance of ethical conflict when people buy paintings by the president's son in a market where sales are already murky and prices extremely difficult to evaluate in an industry that can be used for money laundering.
Hunter also penned a memoir, Beautiful Things, that detailed his struggles with substance abuse and family trauma.
That negotiated structure is meant to keep Hunter Biden,from knowing who is plunking down cash for his works.
'The initial reaction a lot of people are going to have is that he's capitalizing on being the son of a president and wants people to give him a lot of money. I mean, those are awfully high prices,' said Painter, who was a top ethics official in the George W. Bush administration.
Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas tweeted about the arrangement, while flagging Hunter Biden's past work as a hedge funder in China. 'Some very tough ethical questions about whether the president's son, who is still investing in CCP-linked firms, should take $500k in payment (bribes) for his "artwork." Better consult the experts on this one!'
Hunter would have to be informed at least of the value of sales of his paintings so that he could file accurate tax returns. Prosecutors in Delaware are already investigating his tax affairs. It was not clear that the public would ever be informed of the amounts Hunter earned from art sales.
Another part of the arrangement would warn White House officials not to give special treatment if a buyer's identity becomes public.
Neither Hunter nor the White House would know who the buyers are, in an effort to prevent special treatment.
How the White House handles Hunter's budding career is set to be an early ethics test, after Democrats and ethics groups condemned former Pres Donald Trump for bringing his daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner into the White House as powerful unpaid advisors.
The Trump White House spent years fending off litigation and criticism over the president's decision to maintain ownership of his business empire.
'The president has established the highest ethical standards of any admin and his family's commitment to rigorous processes like this is a prime example,' said White House spokesman Andrew Bates.
Another ethics expert, Norm Eisen, who is now at the Brookings Institution, told the Post 'The basic presumption is adult kids are able to make a living . . . as long as a reasonable amount of distance is maintained from the White House.'
He said the White House shouldn't be promoting an art show, for example, and cautioned aides to stay away from anything involving art sales.
Walter Shaub, the former Office of Government Ethics director, also warned that it could be a way for 'influence seekers' or foreign governments to funnel money to the Biden family.
Shaub, has urged Hunter and his art dealer Georges Berges to reveal the identity of the buyers so the public can see if the buyers are trying to get access to the White House.
He told Fox News: 'The notion of a president's son capitalizing on that relationship by selling art at obviously inflated prices and keeping the public in the dark about who's funneling money to him has a shameful and grifty feel to it.'
Just as hotel charges and real estate purchases created a risk of unknown parties funneling money to the Trump family for potentially unsavory purposes, Hunter Biden's grotesquely inflated art prices create a similar risk of influence-seekers funneling money to the Biden family,' he added.
This smells like an attempt to cash in on a family connection to the White House.'
Shaub also tweeted: 'Let's let foreign govts or anyone else funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars anonymously to POTUS's relatives through subjectively priced commodities like hotel charges, real estate purchases and art. Oh wait, no, art is COMPLETELY different.'
Berges, told Artnet that he has priced his latest client's artworks between $75k and $500k
Art dealers have already noted that Biden is likely profiting off his father's name given the staggering price of his artwork, with one saying his art would more likely sell for as much as $100k if he wasn't a Biden.
All sales of Biden's artwork will be kept confidential - despite his alleged corruption over prior business deals in Ukraine and China.
There are also fears from some that the sales of Biden's artwork could result in people using laundered money to buy them and anonymous buyers in places like Russia might try purchasing Biden's son's work to try and get around sanctions currently imposed in their countries.
In 2020, the US Treasury Department issued a warning that high-value art sales could be used by individuals and countries forbidden from doing business in the US as a way of circumventing that ban.
Welcome to the new America
The White House HELPED Hunter Biden reach a deal to keep buyers of his paintings listed for up to $500k confidential so they could 'avoid' ethics issues.
White House helped broker deal to shield the president's son from info about who is buying his work.
Former Office of Gov Ethics director Walter Shaub called the prices for his artwork 'grotesquely inflated' .
The exhibition creates a 'risk of influence-seekers funneling money to the Biden family'.
Hunter will be displaying and selling his artwork in New York City this fall
His art dealer Georges Berges has valued the work at between $75K and $500K
All sales will be kept confidential, despite his alleged corruption over prior business deals in Ukraine and China
The White House helped broker the deal that would allow buyers of Hunter Biden's paintings to remain confidential, despite widespread concerns it could lead to bribery and influence peddling.
The plan will allow Hunter Biden to forge ahead with his new career as an artist after a career change from a high-paid consultant on international deals, by also shielding him from the identities of those who purchase his pricey works.
The deal came about after Biden admin staffers reached out to Hunter's lawyers to forge a plan intended to 'avoid' ethics concerns and let the president's son pursue his new career.
But there are still questions over how the admin and his lawyers will stop individual buyers from reaching out to Hunter or someone revealing how much one of his paintings has been purchased for.
The idea is avoid a situation where he knew who was buying his work so he might be in the position to do them a favor – although it still provides an opportunity for unidentified individuals to shovel large sums to the president's son as he battles high living costs and legal fees.
'So instead of disclosing who is paying outrageous sums for Hunter Biden’s artwork so that we could monitor whether the purchasers are gaining access to government, the WH tried to make sure we will never know who they are.
'The idea’s that even Hunter won’t know, but the WH has outsourced gov ethics to a private art dealer. We’re supposed to trust a merchant in an industry that’s fertile ground for money laundering, as well as unknown buyers who could tell Hunter or WH officials?
Experts are already warning of the risks of influence peddling or at least the appearance of ethical conflict when people buy paintings by the president's son in a market where sales are already murky and prices extremely difficult to evaluate in an industry that can be used for money laundering.
Hunter also penned a memoir, Beautiful Things, that detailed his struggles with substance abuse and family trauma.
That negotiated structure is meant to keep Hunter Biden,from knowing who is plunking down cash for his works.
'The initial reaction a lot of people are going to have is that he's capitalizing on being the son of a president and wants people to give him a lot of money. I mean, those are awfully high prices,' said Painter, who was a top ethics official in the George W. Bush administration.
Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas tweeted about the arrangement, while flagging Hunter Biden's past work as a hedge funder in China. 'Some very tough ethical questions about whether the president's son, who is still investing in CCP-linked firms, should take $500k in payment (bribes) for his "artwork." Better consult the experts on this one!'
Hunter would have to be informed at least of the value of sales of his paintings so that he could file accurate tax returns. Prosecutors in Delaware are already investigating his tax affairs. It was not clear that the public would ever be informed of the amounts Hunter earned from art sales.
Another part of the arrangement would warn White House officials not to give special treatment if a buyer's identity becomes public.
Neither Hunter nor the White House would know who the buyers are, in an effort to prevent special treatment.
How the White House handles Hunter's budding career is set to be an early ethics test, after Democrats and ethics groups condemned former Pres Donald Trump for bringing his daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner into the White House as powerful unpaid advisors.
The Trump White House spent years fending off litigation and criticism over the president's decision to maintain ownership of his business empire.
'The president has established the highest ethical standards of any admin and his family's commitment to rigorous processes like this is a prime example,' said White House spokesman Andrew Bates.
Another ethics expert, Norm Eisen, who is now at the Brookings Institution, told the Post 'The basic presumption is adult kids are able to make a living . . . as long as a reasonable amount of distance is maintained from the White House.'
He said the White House shouldn't be promoting an art show, for example, and cautioned aides to stay away from anything involving art sales.
Walter Shaub, the former Office of Government Ethics director, also warned that it could be a way for 'influence seekers' or foreign governments to funnel money to the Biden family.
Shaub, has urged Hunter and his art dealer Georges Berges to reveal the identity of the buyers so the public can see if the buyers are trying to get access to the White House.
He told Fox News: 'The notion of a president's son capitalizing on that relationship by selling art at obviously inflated prices and keeping the public in the dark about who's funneling money to him has a shameful and grifty feel to it.'
Just as hotel charges and real estate purchases created a risk of unknown parties funneling money to the Trump family for potentially unsavory purposes, Hunter Biden's grotesquely inflated art prices create a similar risk of influence-seekers funneling money to the Biden family,' he added.
This smells like an attempt to cash in on a family connection to the White House.'
Shaub also tweeted: 'Let's let foreign govts or anyone else funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars anonymously to POTUS's relatives through subjectively priced commodities like hotel charges, real estate purchases and art. Oh wait, no, art is COMPLETELY different.'
Berges, told Artnet that he has priced his latest client's artworks between $75k and $500k
Art dealers have already noted that Biden is likely profiting off his father's name given the staggering price of his artwork, with one saying his art would more likely sell for as much as $100k if he wasn't a Biden.
All sales of Biden's artwork will be kept confidential - despite his alleged corruption over prior business deals in Ukraine and China.
There are also fears from some that the sales of Biden's artwork could result in people using laundered money to buy them and anonymous buyers in places like Russia might try purchasing Biden's son's work to try and get around sanctions currently imposed in their countries.
In 2020, the US Treasury Department issued a warning that high-value art sales could be used by individuals and countries forbidden from doing business in the US as a way of circumventing that ban.
Welcome to the new America