The Justice Department has filed new criminal charges against US President Joseph Biden’s son, Hunter, accusing him of failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes while spending millions of dollars on a lavish lifestyle.
Hunter Biden, 53, is charged with three felonies and six misdemeanor tax violations, according to an indictment filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
He faces up to 17 years in prison if convicted. The Justice Department said the investigation into Biden is ongoing.
“The defendant engaged in a four-year scheme to avoid paying at least $1.4 million in self-assessed federal taxes he owed for tax years 2016 through 2019,” the indictment stated.
It added that he instead spent vast sums “on drugs, escorts and girls, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing and other personal items,” including over $70,000 in drug rehabilitation.
Hunter Biden’s lawyer, Abe Lovell, said in a statement that his client has paid his taxes in full, accusing US special counsel David Weiss, who is leading the investigation of Hunter Biden, of violating a previous agreement, according to US media.
According to the indictment, Biden, 53, engaged in a four-year scheme to not pay at least $1.4 million in self-assessed federal taxes he owed for 2016 through 2019, and he evaded the assessment of taxes for 2018 when he filed false returns in February 2020.
He “spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle rather than paying his tax bills,” the indictment said.
Between 2016 and October 15, 2020, according to the charges, Biden received more than $7 million in total gross income. The money came from Burisma Holdings — the Ukrainian conglomerate on which board he served — from an unidentified business associate with whom Biden purportedly helped a Romanian businessperson fight corruption charges and from his involvement with the Chinese private equity venture.
In addition, the indictment said, an entertainment lawyer and personal friend of Biden, provided him with $200,000 in 2020 to rent a “lavish” house on a canal in the trendy Venice neighborhood in LA as well as $11,000 in payments for Biden’s Porsche. In total, this friend paid $1.2 million to third parties on Biden’s behalf, the indictment said.
Biden, whose legal problems have been fodder for Republican lawmakers and pundits to discredit his father’s administration, is already facing three federal weapons charges in Delaware, to which he pleaded not guilty in October.
The weapons and now the tax charges came after a plea agreement with federal prosecutors was rejected by a federal judge earlier this year. Biden had agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanor tax charges and would have avoided prosecution on the gun charges provided he stay out of trouble for two years.
After the plea deal fell apart, prosecutors dismissed the pending tax charges and indicted Biden in Delaware on the gun charges, claiming he lied about his drug use in October 2018 on a form to buy a gun. The dismissed tax charges were resurrected in Thursday’s indictment, Court News reports.
