The Supreme Court declined to entertain an appeal on Monday from Devon Archer, the former business associate of Hunter Biden, concerning his criminal conviction for purportedly defrauding a Native American tribe.
Archer, who previously served on the board of Ukrainian energy firm Burisma with Hunter Biden, had his appeal dismissed by the apex court. In 2018, a federal judge sentenced Archer to prison following a jury's conviction for allegedly defrauding the tribe through the fraudulent issuance of $60 million in tribal bonds.
However, in late 2018, U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams in Manhattan overturned his conviction, citing an "unwavering concern that Archer is innocent of the crimes charged," as reported by Reuters. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated Archer's conviction a month before the 2020 election, and he was handed a one-year and one-day prison sentence in February 2022.
Despite the sentence, Archer's attorney, Matthew Schwartz, has consistently asserted his client's innocence and indicated their intention to file a series of appeals, which has postponed Archer's commencement of his sentence. "Mr. Archer is obviously disappointed with todays sentence, and intends to appeal. It is unfortunate that the judge, who has previously expressed concern that Mr. Archer is innocent of the crimes charged and reiterated that belief today, felt that she was constrained not to act on her independent assessment of the evidence," Schwartz stated in February 2022.
The case originates from Archer's alleged involvement in defrauding a Native American tribal entity and various investment advisory clients of tens of millions of dollars in relation to the issuance of bonds by the tribal entity and the subsequent sale of those bonds through "fraudulent and deceptive means," according to the Department of Justice. Hunter Biden was not implicated in the scheme.
Judge Abrams had earlier ruled that the evidence presented against Archer did not demonstrate that he "knew that the bond issue was fraudulent, or that he received any personal benefit from it," as reported by Reuters. However, in 2022, she stated that the alleged crime was "too serious" to allow Archer to avoid prison time, asserting that "theres no dispute about the harm caused to real people."
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