Joe Biden’s son listed as director at China-backed equity firm, government filings show

Former US vice-president Joe Biden’s son is listed as a director of a state-backed equity fund in China, official government filings show

Pictures of Hunter Biden have been removed from the website of BHR Equity Investment Fund Management Company, but role is unchanged

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Hunter Biden is listed as a director of BHR Equity Investment Fund Management Company. Photo: AP

Published: 6:45am, 5 Oct 2019Updated: 7:13am, 17 Oct 2020

Hunter Biden, the son of former United States vice-president Joe Biden, is listed as a director of a state-backed equity fund in China, but public records do not appear to support claims by US President Donald Trump that he used his father’s connections to secure Chinese capital for his investments.

Trump on Thursday called on China to investigate Biden, now a leading Democratic presidential candidate, and his son, alleging the younger Biden used his position of influence to secure US$1.5 billion in funding from the government-owned Bank of China for a private equity firm he was involved in and made millions in the process.

Filings in China’s National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System database show that Hunter Biden is listed as a director of BHR Equity Investment Fund Management Company, a company incorporated in December 2013 with registered capital of 30 million yuan, or about US$4 million at the current exchange rate.

The private equity firm reshuffled its board of directors on September 18, according to filings, but the younger Biden’s role at the company remained unchanged. All pictures of Hunter have been removed from the BHR website.

In October 2017, Hunter spent about US$420,000 for a 10 per cent stake in BHR, according to a report in The New York Times, when his father had left office.

According to filings, the newspaper report matches an equity structure change reported on the registry on October 23, when BHR’s former shareholder Rosemont Seneca Bohai ceased to become a shareholder and gave way to Ulysses Diversified and Skaneateles LLC.

Bohai Industrial Investment Fund Management, which is backed by Bank of China, and Ample Harvest Finance, a Shanghai-based private equity firm linked with Chinese investment company Harvest, remained the two largest shareholders. The companies paid 9 million yuan (US$1.2 million) for a 30 per cent equity stake.