James Biden’s bids to finance US ventures with ‘sham’ loans probed by feds in Florida

Federal investigators in South Florida have now scrutinized transactions involving brother James Biden as part of an ongoing criminal investigation into the bankrupt rural hospital chain.

Sunshine State investigation, two people familiar with the case told PoliticoThe series examined efforts by President Biden's younger brother and his associates to lure investment from Americor Health — as well as other ventures in the Middle East.

James Biden's efforts on behalf of the US helped secure a $200,000 payment to his brother Joe – the circumstances of which are now part of the House impeachment inquiry into the president.

Meanwhile, federal prosecutors have filed a Medicare fraud case According to a third source at Politico, Pennsylvania was asked for information about James Biden's activities as recently as last year. That case involved millions of dollars in illegal Medicare payments by a US hospital.

“Jim Biden is not being investigated by federal law enforcement in Florida or Pennsylvania,” his attorney Paul Fishman said in a statement.

Representatives of the U.S. Attorneys' offices for the Southern District of Florida and the Western District of Pennsylvania declined to comment when contacted by The Post.

James Biden testified to Congress last month that he was “looking for investment from Qatar” to finance U.S. operations but later raised $20 million with the help of Michael Levitt, who runs the Florida-based investment advisory firm Third Friday. Let's run.

James said he received $600,000 from Third Friday to arrange payment as a bridge loan to America – but the management firm did not inform its investors about the millions of dollars transferred.

Those investors in 2022 filed a lawsuit Palm Beach County, Florida alleged that Levitt kept them in the dark about “sham” US loans and stole millions from the Third Friday Fund to line his own pockets and pay James Biden.

SEC also filed civil charges In the September 2023 move against Levitt, US was given “45 separate loan advances totaling more than $19 million” “between January 2018 and November 2019” when it went bankrupt.

According to Politico, the FBI has been involved in that case.

Joe Biden received $200,000 from his brother on March 1, 2018, the same day that James Biden received a similar $200,000 payment from the US.

According to an earlier Politico report, the current president was present for the phone call that his brother made during his work with the US, another example of James Biden leveraging the family name in his dealings with the hospital chain. Had come forward.

According to Politico, George Messiers, a lawyer who represented both James and Hunter Biden in their business deals abroad, apparently also represented Leavitt in some of the transactions being looked at by the Feds. He did not respond to the outlet's request for comment.

The first brother told Congress that the money, in the form of a check with a memo line marked “loan repayment,” was sent to pay back Joe Biden for a $200,000 wire transfer from the former vice president's corporate bank account .

The March 2018 transfer, along with a $40,000 payment to Joe Biden in September 2017, were disclosed as part of the House impeachment inquiry into the president, which previously searched the bank for evidence of the First Family's influence-peddling and foreign trade deals. Records and witnesses were examined.

“The business dealings and financial transactions involving James and Hunter Biden have been investigated by the Department of Justice, the FBI, the IRS and the SEC,” House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) told The Post.

“There is nothing normal about the Biden family ‘business’. “The House Oversight Committee will continue to investigate President Biden’s abuse of public office and his family’s corrupt schemes to capitalize on the Biden name.”

The House Judiciary Committee, which is conducting the impeachment inquiry along with the Oversight and Ways and Means Committees, requested that Leavitt sit for written interview last December.

“We are in talks with his lawyer about scheduling his appearance,” a spokesperson for the Oversight Committee told The Post on Tuesday.

In his statement before the House Oversight Committee, James Biden said that he had to repay $350,000 to the US after the bankruptcy, leaving him with only $250,000 for his services.

The amount initially offered as a loan was repaid in full by a mysterious third party, despite Brother previously telling Congress that the money “had been forgiven by Michael Leavitt.”

As part of an earlier dispute in 2019, a plaintiff who sued James Biden and some of his allies received a package containing Middle Eastern currency with visible blood on it and a message that read “Torture ” was mentioned, the Knoxville News Sentinel previously reported. informed of,

That case, brought by two Tennessee health care companies, accused the first brother and his partners of committing a “classic fraudulent bait-and-switch” to bankrupt them and steal their business model by blocking the possibility of foreign investment that never came. Was imposed.

The case settled for an undisclosed amount.