EXCLUSIVE: Joe Biden was allegedly considering joining the board of a joint venture created by Hunter Biden and his business associates with ties to the Chinese Communist Party after he left the vice presidency.
Joe Biden's involvement would bring "political access in the United States and around the world," a former business associate of the first son testified from prison Friday.
Fox News Digital exclusively obtained Jason Galanis’ opening statement delivered Friday morning to congressional investigators from an Alabama prison as part of the impeachment inquiry against President Biden.
Galanis is serving a 14-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to securities fraud based on bonds issued by a company affiliated with a Native American tribe in South Dakota. The funds were reportedly supposed to be used for certain projects but were instead used for his personal finances. He was sentenced in 2017.
Galanis said he worked with Devon Archer and Hunter Biden between 2012 and 2015. Their business together, he said, included the acquisition of Burnham & Co, a division of Drexel Burnham Lambert, combined with "other businesses in insurance and wealth management." Galanis testified the three "owned and acquired with total audited assets of over $17 billion."
"Our objective was to build a diversified private equity platform, which would be anchored by a globally known Wall Street brand together with a globally known political name," Galanis testified. "Our goal — that is, Hunter Biden, Devon Archer and me — was to make billions, not millions."
Galanis testified that "the entire value-add of Hunter Biden to our business was his family name and his access to his father, Vice President Joe Biden.
"Because of this access, I agreed to contribute equity ownership to them — Hunter and Devon — for no out-of-pocket cost from them in exchange for their ‘relationship capital,’" he told investigators.
Hunter Biden served as vice chairman of the Burnham group "and brought strategic relationships to the venture, including from Kazakhstan, Russia and China."
"Burnham was the focal point for integrating a ‘Biden family office’ into a large-scale financial company with international influence," he explained, adding that they acquired some of Hunter Biden’s companies like RSP Investments and Rosemont Seneca Advisors.
Galanis testified that, in 2014, he "agreed with Hunter and Devon that the Burnham & Company enterprise would be significantly enhanced by forming a partnership with Harvest Fund Management, a $300 billion Chinese financial services company closely connected to the Chinese Communist Party." Harvest, at that time, had already agreed to be a founding partner of BHR Partners, he explained.
Fox News Digital has previously reported that Joe Biden met with Jonathan Li, who worked for BHR Partners, in China in 2013.
Galanis explained that Henry Zhao, the director of Harvest, was a contact of Hunter Biden’s.
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"Mr. Zhao was interested in this partnership because of the game-changing value-add of the Biden family, including Joe Biden, who was to be a member of the Burnham-Harvest team post-vice presidency, providing political access in the United States and around the world," Galanis testified.
Galanis pointed to a draft email dated Aug. 23, 2014, from Hunter Biden, which states: "Please also remind Henry [Zhao] of our conversation about a board seat for a certain relation of mine. Devon and I golfed with that relation earlier last week and we discussed this very idea again and as always he remains very very keen on the opportunity."
Fox News Digital obtained that draft email.
Galanis testified that email was "struck from the final version" but "was drafted with an understanding of what had transpired regarding this effort."
Galanis said the email was forwarded to him by Devon Archer with the words: "FYI … example of lean in on Henry from Hunter … this is email drafted for him to send to Henry."
Galanis testified that the words "lean in" were "used often by Devon and Hunter in our business dealings as a term for access to Vice President Biden’s political influence."
"As Devon Archer is mentioned as a direct party to the conversation with the vice president on the golf course, it is clear from his email that Devon believed this was an accurate representation of that conversation," Galanis said in his opening statement.
"I am certain that the phrase ‘a certain relation of mine’ refers to Vice President Biden, and Devon told me about this conversation on the golf course shortly after it happened," Galanis testified. "And it was one of many conversations that I understood the vice president had expressing his willingness to join Harvest board after his vice presidency."
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The draft email does not specifically mention Joe Biden’s name or refer to the "certain relation" as Hunter Biden’s father. However, there is an infamous photo of Vice President Joe Biden, Hunter Biden and Devon Archer on the golf course. That photo was taken in mid-August 2014, which would have been a week or so prior to the draft email. News reports indicate the vice president was in the Hamptons at the time.
Galanis went on to testify that Zhao "regularly sought reassurance about what he termed the ‘intangible goods’ that Vice President Biden serving on the Harvest board would bring to the business plan."
"He wanted assurances so that he would not ‘lose face,’" Galanis said. "In my opinion, there was no other reason for this massive Chinese enterprise to have been interested in doing business with Burnham other than the Biden name."
Zhao also worked with Hunter Biden in a separate joint venture with Chinese energy company CEFC.
Zhao is the recipient of a now-infamous text message Hunter Biden sent after requesting a $10 million wire for the joint-venture, SinoHawk Holdings.
"I am sitting here with my father, and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled," Hunter Biden told Henry Zhao, the director of Chinese asset management firm Harvest Fund Management. "And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction."
Zhao responded, in part, "CEFC is willing to cooperate with the family."
Ultimately, Joe Biden did not take a seat on the board of the joint venture.
Meanwhile, Galanis testified that he recalls "being with Hunter Biden and Devon Archer at the Peninsula Bar in New York, where Hunter took a call from his father. He told his father things were going well with Henry and Harvest and that he might need a little help getting it across the finish line."
"Hunter did not put the call on speaker as we were at this bar, but I am certain that Hunter was discussing our business efforts on the Burnham-Harvest partnership and that the vice president was aware of these efforts," Galanis testified, adding that was "not the only time I heard Hunter call his father regarding business matters."
Archer last year testified before the House Oversight Committee that Hunter put his father, who was vice president at the time, on speakerphone while meeting with business partners at least 20 times, and he said Joe Biden was put on the phone to sell "the brand."
Galanis testified that call was "not the only time" he heard Hunter "call his father regarding business matters," pointing to a separate call in which Hunter Biden put his father "on speaker." Galanis said Russian oligarch Yelena Baturina and her husband, the former mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov, were present for the call, which took place May 4, 2014.
Fox News Digital has previously reported that Joe Biden attended dinners in 2014 at Cafe Milano in Georgetown in 2014 and 2015 with Baturina and others.
"Hunter called his father, said hello and ‘hold on, Pops,’ then put the call on speakerphone and said, ‘I am here with our friends I told you were coming to town, and we wanted to say hello,’" Galanis recalled. "The vice president said hello and some pleasantries of ‘Hope you had safe travels,’ and then seemed like he wanted to bring the call to an end by saying, ‘OK then, you be good to my boy.’"
Galanis said Hunter responded by saying, "Everything is good, and we are moving ahead."
"The vice president said something about ‘being helpful,’ and Hunter ended the call by saying that he was going to call his father later," Galanis testified. "I recall being stunned by this call — to actually hear the vice president of the United States speaking on the phone."
Galanis testified that "it was clear" to him that "this was a pre-arranged call with his father meant to impress the Russian investors that Hunter had access to his father and all the power and prestige of his position."
Days later, on May 9, 2014, Archer sent Galanis an email, obtained by Fox News Digital, which revealed Baturina was "committed to a ‘hard order’ of $10-20 million in a Burnham investment banking client."
Galanis acknowledged that "in an effort" to build Burnham, he "engaged in unlawful conduct" and "betrayed" the trust of union members’ pension fund money.
"I pleaded guilty. I have had eight years in federal custody to reflect on my actions, and I am profoundly sorry for my role," he said.
Archer was also indicted in the scheme, but Hunter Biden was not. Galanis testified he believed the federal "prosecution strategy was intended to protect Hunter Biden and, ultimately, Vice President Biden."
Galanis has applied for and been denied home confinement. Galanis said that beginning in January 2023, he was "sexually assaulted" by a member of prison staff at FPC Pensacola. He testified that he was hoping home confinement "would remove me from the danger."
"I believe that based on the events I have described, much of which is memorialized in writing, I have been the victim of a pattern of retribution by the Department of Justice in order to prevent my home confinement, which would have allowed full and free access to congressional investigators," he said.
Galanis said that from his experiences in the justice system, he believes he is putting himself "at grave risk within the BOP for providing information on these matters concerning the president and his son."