Former business partner of Hunter Biden, Devon Archer, is seeking a new trial in his fraud case and hoping to avoid serving a one-year prison sentence.
Archer recently revealed new details about President Biden's involvement in his son's foreign business ventures, which occurred while partnering with Hunter on deals in China and Ukraine. These revelations preceded the launch of a House impeachment inquiry in September.
Archer was previously convicted in June 2018 for his role in the selling of fraudulent bonds worth over $60 million. He was found guilty of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and securities fraud. While Hunter Biden was the vice chairman of the company involved, he was not charged in connection with the scheme. In addition to prison time, Archer was ordered to forfeit $15.7 million and pay restitution of $43.4 million.
Archer's conviction was initially overturned in November 2018 but was reinstated by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in 2020. The Supreme Court rejected an earlier appeal from Archer in 2021. Archer's attorneys argue in their latest filing that the case includes unresolved legal matters, including whether district courts have the discretion to reweigh the evidence when evaluating a new trial motion.
They also claim that the district court made an arithmetic error in calculating Archer's guidelines for sentencing. Archer's testimony before the House Oversight Committee in July revealed Joe Biden's interactions with his son's partners, including multiple speaker-phone calls during business meetings. Archer stated that Joe Biden had coffee with Chinese government-linked businessman Jonathan Li during a trip to Beijing in December 2013, before Hunter Biden launched a state-backed investment fund with Li as CEO.
Archer also mentioned that Joe Biden attended two dinners at a restaurant in DC with Hunter's patrons from Eastern Europe and Central Asia. One of the attendees at the 2015 dinner was Vadym Pozharskyi, an adviser to the board of Burisma Holdings, the Ukrainian gas company that paid Hunter Biden up to $1 million per year.
Archer testified that Hunter Biden made a phone call to his father during a meeting in Dubai with Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky and Pozharsky. An FBI informant file released in July claimed that Zlochevsky paid $10 million in bribes to Joe and Hunter Biden in exchange for the then-Vice President's help in ousting Ukrainian prosecutor-general Viktor Shokin.
However, this bribery claim has not been substantiated. Another attendee at one of the DC dinners was Yelena Baturina, a Russian billionaire who invested in US property with Hunter Biden and Archer. Baturina transferred $3.5 million to a corporate entity controlled by Hunter Biden and Archer in February 2014.
Joe Biden was photographed with Kazakhstani business associates of his son at one of the dinners, including Kenes Rakishev, who wired Hunter $142,300 to buy a luxury car in 2014. Archer testified that Joe Biden did not directly discuss business in his presence but engaged in general conversation.
However, there are still unanswered questions about Hunter Biden's business dealings, including the reason for the $3.5 million transfer from Baturina. Archer claimed to be unaware of the reason and his attorney prevented further inquiries about the Russian billionaire.
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