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→Burisma
==Burisma==
==Burisma==
The ouster of President Yanukovych put the founder and president of [[Burisma]] oil and gas, [[Mykola Zlochevsky]], in a delicate spot. Zlochevsky had served as the environment minister under Yanukovych, handing out gas licenses to cronies. Having watched the president flee Ukraine for his life, currying favor with the Obama administration was paramount for Zlochevsky.
In the spring of 2014, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office opened an investigation at the behest of the UK prosecutors office, which was investigating money laundering allegations against its owner, former Ukrainian Ecology Minister Nikolai Zlochevsky (also known as Mykola Zlochevsky) and had just frozen $23.5 million in assets allegedly belonging to him in early April 2014.
In the spring of 2014, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office opened an investigation at the behest of the UK prosecutors office, which was investigating money laundering allegations against its owner, former Ukrainian Ecology Minister Nikolai Zlochevsky (also known as Mykola Zlochevsky) and had just frozen $23.5 million in assets allegedly belonging to him in early April 2014.
During a May 13, 2014, press conference, Matt Lee of the ''[[Associated Press]]'' grilled State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki about Hunter Biden’s role on Burisma’s board.
{{quotebox|Lee: “Does this building diplomatically have any concerns about potential perceptions of conflict or [[cronyism]] – which is what you’ve often accused the Russians of doing?”<br>Paski: “No, he’s a private citizen."<ref>https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4819961/hunter-biden-ukraine-joe-biden-conflict-interest-13-2014</ref>}}
According to ''The Hill'' Biden's firm, Rosemont Seneca Partners, was receiving regular payments—“usually more than $166,000 a month”—from Burisma. The payments ran from the spring of 2014 through the fall of 2015 and reportedly totaled more than $3 million. ''The Hill'' article included a written answer from Shokin, who said his investigation into Burisma had included plans for “interrogations and other crime-investigation procedures into all members of the executive board, including Hunter Biden.”
In August 2014, the oligarch was forced to follow Yanukovych into exile after being accused of illegally enriching himself. The need to refurbish Burisma’s tattered image, as well as his own, prompted Zlochevsky to resort to forking over large sums of money to win friends in [[Washington, D.C.]]. [[Hunter Biden]] and the [[Atlantic Council]] were soon to become two of his best friends. Hunter Biden also held a position at the National Democratic Institute, a U.S.-funded “democracy promotion” organization that was heavily involved in pushing [[regime change]] in Ukraine. Burisma handed him a position on its board despite his lack of experience in the energy industry and in Ukrainian affairs. Hunter Biden enlisted the D.C. law firm, Boies, Schiller, and Flexner, where he served as co-counsel, to help “improve [Burisma’s] corporate governance.” By the following January 2015, Zlochevsky’s assets were unfrozen by the U.K.<ref>https://www.kyivpost.com/article/content/ukraine-politics/british-court-unfreezes-accounts-of-yanukovych-era-ecology-minister-zlochevsky-378238.html?cn-reloaded=1</ref> This action was pointedly called out in a speech by U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, who stated,
{{quotebox|“In the case of former Ecology Minister Mykola Zlochevsky, the U.K. authorities had seized $23 million in illicit assets that belonged to the Ukrainian people.” Instead of receiving cooperation from Ukrainian prosecutors, they “sent letters to Zlochevsky’s attorneys attesting that there was no case against him. As a result, the money was freed by the U.K. court, and shortly thereafter the money was moved to Cyprus.”}}
On Feb. 10, 2015, Viktor Shokin was appointed as the Prosecutor General of the Ukraine and he picked up the investigation into Burisma, which reportedly continued until his removal in February 2016.<ref>[https://www.scribd.com/document/427618359/Shokin-Statement Affidavit of Viktor Shokin on Biden shakedown], September 4, 2019.</ref>
On Feb. 10, 2015, Viktor Shokin was appointed as the Prosecutor General of the Ukraine and he picked up the investigation into Burisma, which reportedly continued until his removal in February 2016.<ref>[https://www.scribd.com/document/427618359/Shokin-Statement Affidavit of Viktor Shokin on Biden shakedown], September 4, 2019.</ref>
In a December 2015 op-ed, the editorial board of ''[[The New York Times]]'' took both Bidens to task for the unseemly business arrangement:
{{quotebox|“It should be plain to Hunter Biden that any connection with a Ukrainian oligarch damages his father’s efforts to help Ukraine. This is not a board he should be sitting on.”<ref>https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/12/opinion/joe-biden-lectures-ukraine.html</ref>}}
Hunter Biden maintained that he had only a brief conversation with his father about his work at Burisma. Hunter recalled to ''[[The New Yorker]]'':
{{quotebox|“Dad said, ‘I hope you know what you are doing,’ and I said, ‘I do.’<ref>https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/07/08/will-hunter-biden-jeopardize-his-fathers-campaign</ref>}}
Despite his constant focus on Ukraine, the Joe Biden claimed in September 2019 that he never spoke to his son about his business dealings in the country.<ref>https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2019/09/21/joe-biden-never-talked-ukraine-son-trump-needs-investigated/2401830001/</ref>
==Hunter Biden timeline==
==Hunter Biden timeline==