China fired a warning shot at President Biden when a Chinese-American bank supplied Senate Republicans with records showing millions of dollars flowing from Chinese companies to Mr. Biden’s son Hunter Biden and brother James Biden, said a lawmaker spearheading an investigation of the first family.
Cathay Bank, which is based in Los Angeles but has offices in China, voluntarily turned over bank records requested by Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Charles E. Grassley of Iowa. Every other American bank denied the two Republicans’ requests for financial records.
“In my mind, it’s the Chinese government telling Joe Biden, ‘We got the goods on you, buddy, and we’re willing to dish it up,’” Mr. Johnson told The Washington Times.
Cathay Bank spokesman Ian Campbell said the allegations are false.
“Cathay Bank, a NASDAQ-listed, U.S. financial institution for over 60 years, has cooperated with the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability’s request for information. The bank intends to continue to cooperate with the committee,” he said in a statement to The Times. “Cathay Bank was founded more than sixty years ago by a United States citizen, and serves American communities as a bank with over $20 billion in assets and more than 60 branches in 9 states. Cathay Bank is neither owned by nor affiliated with the Chinese government in any way.”
The records the bank handed over showed deep financial ties between the president’s son and brother and the now-defunct CEFC China Energy, which had ties to the Chinese Communist Party. The energy giant wired $1 million to Hudson West III, a joint venture owned by Hunter Biden and Gongwen Dong, a business associate of CEFC’s founder and chairman, Ye Jianming.
A second Chinese energy company, Northern International Capital Holdings, which is associated with the communist-backed CEFC, wired $5 million to Hudson West III, the Cathay Bank records show. The money sent from the two companies funded a $4.8 million wire transfer from Hudson West III to Hunter Biden’s companies Owasco P.C. and Owasco LLC, and Lion Hall Group, owned by the president’s brother James Biden.
The Cathay records show Owasco P.C. sent 20 wire transfers totaling nearly $1.4 million to the Lion Hall Group. Hudson West III paid Hunter Biden a $500,000 retainer fee plus $100,000 per month. James Biden was paid $65,000 per month.
The transactions were made from August 2017 through October 2018, after Mr. Biden left the Obama White House. At that time, Mr. Biden was considered a top contender for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.
“This is $5 million from a company connected to Ye Jianming and CEFC and its affiliates, which are essentially arms of the communist Chinese regime,” Mr. Grassley said during a Senate floor speech.
The Cathay Bank records provide a detailed look at just one segment of the Biden family foreign business network, which has yielded millions of dollars from deals with Russia, Ukraine and other countries that date back to Mr. Biden’s term as vice president.
Mr. Biden has denied having any involvement with or knowledge about his family’s business entanglements, but House and Senate Republicans are investigating potential influence peddling and how the transactions might pose threats to national security.
They said the Chinese business deals and Cathay Bank’s willingness to make them public raise red flags about Mr. Biden’s involvement and vulnerability.
“We just requested the records, and no questions asked; they just turned them over to us,” Mr. Johnson said. “That’s not by accident.”
The bank records reveal that Hunter Biden and Gongwen Dong opened a $99,000 line of credit for Hunter Biden to use, along with James Biden and his wife, Sara Biden. The credit cards were used to make purchases from airlines, Apple stores, hotels and restaurants, according to an investigative report by Mr. Johnson and Mr. Grassley.
The bank records showed other payments from Hudson West III. The company sent CEFC Infrastructure, an affiliate of CEFC Energy, payments totaling more than $381,000. Gongwen Dong received roughly $123,000, and Hunter Biden’s Chinese American assistant, JiaQi Bao, was paid nearly $30,000. Coldharbour Capital LLC, a company associated with Hunter Biden’s business partner Mervyn Yan, received $318,000.
Republicans said the business deals could be softening the president’s stance against China’s creeping threats to the U.S.
Mr. Johnson pointed to the Justice Department’s decision in February 2022 to disband the China Initiative. The program was implemented under President Trump to combat China’s efforts to steal cutting-edge technology and other U.S. innovations. The Justice Department said it dropped the program because of concerns from civil rights groups.
Mr. Biden also suspended tariffs on Chinese solar panels.
The president’s supporters say he has been tough on China and point to his decision to limit the export of some semiconductor chips, which are critical to national security.
Republicans want the Cathay Bank records to be included in an ongoing investigation of Hunter Biden’s tax filings.
Mr. Johnson and Mr. Grassley sent the bank records to U.S. Attorney David Weiss, Delaware’s top prosecutor. Mr. Weiss oversees a team investigating Hunter Biden on suspicion of tax crimes and false statements regarding a gun purchase.
“If you are conducting a full and complete investigation, you should already possess these records,” Mr. Johnson and Mr. Grassley wrote to Mr. Weiss in October. “In the case that you are not and do not possess these records, we suggest that you review them in detail.”
House Republicans, meanwhile, are following a trail of suspicious activity reports at the Treasury Department to gain access to bank accounts related to the Biden business deals that other financial institutions have declined to provide voluntarily.
Republicans hold the House majority, which gives the Oversight and Accountability Committee greater access to Treasury Department records and the power to subpoena bank records.
The committee chairman, Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, began seeking bank records nearly a year ago. He wrote to Cathay Bank President Chang M. Liu,
“The American people deserve to know the president’s connections to his son’s business deals, which have occurred at the expense of American interests and may represent a national security threat.”