A Chinese businessman threatened to sue Hunter Biden over claims the president’s son did not provide legal duties as contracted.
As outlined in a 2017 contract, Chinese firm CEFC paid Hunter $1 million for legal work on behalf of its employee, Dr. Patrick Ho.
Ho sent a legal letter last week to the president’s son, requesting the termination of their attorney-client agreement, per the New York Post. Ho is threatening a lawsuit if Hunter does not provide a detailed account of the work provided and return any unused funds, claiming Hunter did not honor the 2017 contract.
Ho gave Hunter seven days to return the unused funds.
“Patrick says he paid him and that Hunter never did anything for him,” a friend of Ho’s told the New York Post, adding, “and that according to the contract, the money should be reimbursed.”
A California tax indictment showed a $1 million legal retainer payment was wired from CEFC in China to a CEFC account in Hong Kong, then to a bank account for Hunter’s Hudson West III American (a firm Hunter co-owned with CEFC), and then finally to a private firm of the president’s son, Owasco.
Hunter acknowledged the payment during his failed 2023 plea hearing with U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika in Delaware when he described it as a “payment for legal fees for Patrick Ho” through “my own law firm,” as the New York Post reported.
The attorney engagement agreement signed by Hunter stated that the “Attorney will perform the legal services called for under this agreement, keep Client informed of progress and developments, and respond promptly to Client’s inquiries and communications.”
Joe Ziegler, an IRS investigator, testified in 2023 to the House Ways and Means Committee about the $1 million payment to Hunter.
“The evidence … indicates that this $1 million payment was not for legal fees and was misrepresented by the Delaware U.S. Attorney’s Office in the statement of facts, and that its ultimate purpose was still under investigation by DOJ,” Ziegler said.
Ho faced legal troubles in 2017 when he was arrested and convicted two years later for bribe payments to the presidents of Chad and Uganda. He was sentenced to three years in jail and later deported to Hong Kong.
Hunter received $7.2 million from CEFC between March 2017 and March 2018. He additionally received a 3.16-carat diamond in February 2017 from CEFC chairman Ye Jianming. The value of the diamond was estimated at $80,000.
Hunter said last week in a deposition for the impeachment inquiry into his father that he gave the diamond to his uncle, Jim Biden, who testified in his deposition that he “threw it in the trash.” Jim further testified that Hunter received another diamond from CEFC in 2015 or 2016.
The president’s son confirmed in his deposition last week that his father attended dinners with some of his foreign business partners, as reported by The Dallas Express. The meetings were previously reported by the New York Post and denied by the Biden campaign in 2020.