Devon Archer is a former business partner of President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden who is expected to testify about their business dealings before a U.S. House committee.
Politico described Archer as Hunter Biden’s “longtime business partner.” According to Politico, on Monday, July 31, 2023, Archer is scheduled to testify about Hunter and Joe Biden before a House committee.
According to The Washington Times, Archer, 49, will give closed-door testimony. He is awaiting a prison term on federal criminal convictions.
Kentucky Congressman James Comer told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” that Archer has the “opportunity” to be a “hero” by telling the truth.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Devon Archer Is Expected to Discuss President Biden During His Congressional Testimony, Reports Say
Fox News reported that Archer “is reportedly preparing to tell lawmakers that President Biden met with dozens of Hunter’s business associates while he was serving as vice president between 2009 and 2017.”
According to Fox:
Archer is expected to detail the meetings he witnessed that both Bidens attended—either in person or via telephone. Archer will reportedly testify that Hunter would specifically introduce his father to foreign business partners or prospective investors.
According to the Washington Times, Archer “helped the first son and his family secure millions of dollars from deals involving Ukraine, China and Russia.”
Comer told Fox News:
We know that Devon Archer was on the board of Burisma with Hunter Biden. We know that Devon Archer has met and communicated many, many times with Joe Biden about Burisma and other things. So this is going to be an opportunity for Devon Archer, just to tell the truth. We have other bank statements that we’ve obtained that we have questions about pertaining to countries that we believe Archer may have knowledge of.
“I have never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings,” Joe Biden told Fox News reporter Peter Doocy. “You should be looking at Trump. Trump’s doing this because he knows I’ll beat him like a drum.”
2. Devon Archer’s Texts to Hunter Biden Were Discovered on Biden’s Discarded Laptop, Reports Say
According to the Washington Times, messages on Hunter Biden’s laptop show that his partnership with Archer disintegrated in 2019 as Archer worked to overturn a federal prison sentence.
“Why did your dad’s administration appointees arrest me and try to put me in jail? Just curious. Some of our partners are asking out here,” Archer texted Hunter Biden, according to the Washington Times.
Archer also wrote Hunter Biden, according to the Times, “Why would they try and ruin my family and destroy my kids and no one from your family’s side step in and at least try to help me. I don’t get it. And I’m depressed. Bunch of these Asians getting in my head and asking me the same so just curious what should I answer.”
According to the Washington Times, Hunter Biden wrote back that he couldn’t help Archer escape prosecution.
“It’s democracy. Three co equal branches of government,” he told Archer, according to The Times. “You are always more vulnerable to the overreach of one of those Co equal [sic] branches when you are in power. Every presidents family is held to a higher standard is a target. It’s the price of being the most powerful group of people in the world. It’s why our democracy remains viable. It’s unfair at times but in the end the system of justice usually works and like you we are redeemed and the truth prevails. The unfairness to us allows for the greater good.”
The website Bidenlaptopemails.com has an archive with many Devon Archer emails.
According to Daily Mail, Archer is in hiding after receiving threats.
3. Devon Archer, Who Is Married to Wife Krista, Served on the Burisma Natural Gas Firm With Hunter Biden & Co-Founded an Investment Firm With Him
According to Fox News, Archer worked “closely with Hunter, including on the board of Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma Holdings with him, beginning in 2014.”
“Archer also co-founded investment firm Rosemont Seneca alongside the president’s son and Climate Envoy John Kerry’s stepson, Christopher Heinz. Archer served as managing director,” Fox News reported, adding:
Archer co-founded BHR Partners in 2013— a joint-venture between Rosemont Seneca and Chinese investment firm Bohai Capital. BHR Partners is a Beijing-backed private equity firm controlled by Bank of China Limited.
He resigned from BHR in 2016, according to Fox News.
Daily Mail reported that Archer and Hunter Biden graduated from Yale together and were friends for decades. He is married to wife Krista Archer, according to Daily Mail.
4. The Justice Department Wrote to the Trial Judge on July 29, 2023, Asking Her to Schedule a Prison Report Date for Devon Archer
On Saturday, July 29, 2023, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York wrote to trial judge Ronnie Abrams and asked the judge to give Archer a report date to prison, according to the letter.
The letter says that the government was writing “to apprise the Court of the status of defendant Devon Archer’s appeal of his judgment of conviction, and to request that the Court set a surrender date for the defendant to report to a facility designated by the Bureau of Prisons to commence his term of imprisonment.”
On April 11, 2022, the court granted the defendant’s motion for bail pending appeal, according to the government and, on July 25, 2023, the Court of Appeals affirmed his conviction.
The government asked Archer’s lawyer to propose a date for his surrender but the lawyer responded that Archer “believes it is premature to set a report date in light of his anticipated continuing appeal as well as the newly-discovered sentencing error that the government has now conceded,” the letter says.
Archer is still expected to testify because Abrams isn’t likely to rule before then, according to Politico. In a statement to Politico, Archer’s lawyer Matthew Schwartz, said Archer doesn’t see a connection between his testimony and the request.
“We are aware of speculation that the Department of Justice’s weekend request to have Mr. Archer report to prison is an attempt by the Biden administration to intimidate him in advance of his meeting with the House Oversight Committee,” Schwartz said in a statement obtained by Politico. “To be clear, Mr. Archer does not agree with that speculation. In any case, Mr. Archer will do what he has planned to do all along, which is to show up on Monday and to honestly answer the questions that are put to him by the Congressional investigators.”
5. Devon Archer Was Sentenced to Serve More than 1 Year in Prison in February 2022
In February 2022, Archer was sentenced to a year and a day in prison, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. “In addition to the prison term, ARCHER, 47, was sentenced to a year of supervised release. ARCHER was also ordered to forfeit $15,700,513 and to make restitution in the amount of $43,427,436,” the DOJ news release says.
He was convicted of the crimes in 2018, Politico reported.
“Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that DEVON ARCHER was sentenced today by the Honorable Ronnie Abrams to a year and a day in prison for defrauding a Native American tribal entity and various investment advisory clients of tens of millions of dollars in connection with the issuance of bonds by the tribal entity and the subsequent sale of those bonds through fraudulent and deceptive means,” a DOJ news release says.
The news release says that, from March 2014 and Paril 2016, Archer and a list of other defendants “engaged in a fraudulent scheme that involved (a) causing the Wakpamni Lake Community Corporation (“WLCC”), a Native American tribal entity, to issue a series of bonds (the ‘Tribal Bonds’) through lies and misrepresentations; (b) deceptively causing clients of asset management firms controlled by Hirst, Morton, and others to purchase the Tribal Bonds, which the clients were then unable to redeem or sell because the bonds were illiquid and lacked a ready secondary market; and (c) misappropriating the proceeds resulting from those bond sales.”
According to DOJ, “The WLCC was convinced to issue the Tribal Bonds through false and fraudulent representations by John Galanis. Simultaneously, Jason Galanis, with the backing of ARCHER and others, worked to acquire Hughes Capital Management (‘Hughes’), a registered investment adviser. (Michelle) Morton and (Gary) Hirst were installed as Hughes’ Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer, respectively.”
According to the DOJ press release,
Within weeks of taking control of Hughes, Morton and Hirst placed the entire $28 million first series of Tribal Bonds with Hughes clients but failed to disclose material facts about the Tribal Bonds, including the fact that the Tribal Bonds fell outside of the investment parameters set forth in the investment advisory contracts of certain Hughes clients. In addition, Hughes’ clients were not told about substantial conflicts of interest with respect to the issuance and placement of the Tribal Bonds before the Tribal Bonds were purchased on these clients’ behalf.
The defendants and their co-conspirators then misappropriated the proceeds of first Tribal Bond issuance. Specifically, although the Tribal Bonds were supposed to be invested in an annuity, Dunkerley, at the direction of Jason Galanis, transferred significant amounts of the bond proceeds to support the defendants’ business and personal interests. John Galanis, for example, secretly received $2.35 million in proceeds of the first bond issuance, which he spent on a variety of personal expenses and luxury items, including cars, jewelry, and hotel expenses. Similarly, Jason Galanis used a portion of the proceeds of the first Tribal Bond issuance to finance the purchase of a $10 million luxury apartment in Tribeca, which, with ARCHER’s consent, he purchased in ARCHER’s name.
Other defendants also received prison sentences, according to DOJ.
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