Mervyn Yan, a former associate of Hunter Biden who helped him to secure lucrative business deals with an energy company linked to the Chinese Communist Party, told House investigators the president’s son and brother “had no experience” in the energy and infrastructure sectors that paid them handsomely.
Mervyn Yan, a Biden family associate affiliated with the Bidens’ dealings with Chinese government-linked energy firm CEFC, testified in a closed-door deposition Thursday that he was not sure what skills presidential brother James Biden and presidential son Hunter Biden brought to the table in securing deals with the now-defunct energy company.
Lawmakers on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee and the Judiciary Committee interviewed Mr. Yan for several hours as part of an impeachment inquiry into President Biden’s involvement in his family’s business deals.
Some of the money from a CEFC-affiliated company, GOP lawmakers said, eventually ended up in Mr. Biden’s bank account in the form of a loan repayment from James Biden to his brother several months after Mr. Biden’s second term as vice president ended in 2017.
On Friday, the panel will privately depose another ex-business associate, Rob Walker, who previously told FBI and IRS investigators that Hunter Biden introduced his business associates to his father while Mr. Biden was serving as vice president.
“Mervyn Yan admitted on the record the Bidens had no experience in the energy and infrastructure sectors and was not sure what they brought to the table,” said Rep. James Comer, Kentucky Republican and chairman of the oversight committee. “His testimony raises many questions about the Bidens’ dealings with the Chinese government-linked energy firm and we hope to learn more tomorrow from Rob Walker, another Biden family associate.”
Democratic aides said the GOP’s pursuit of a corruption claim against Mr. Biden has produced nothing, and said there are records indicating Hunter Biden and James Biden were involved in legitimate business deals with CEFC and its affiliates.
The aides said Mr. Yan’s lawyers sent a letter to Mr. Comer stating that Mr. Yan “had no professional contact or communication with President Biden at any time,” and “had no information about any alleged connection between President Biden and Hunter and Jim Biden’s business endeavors.”
House investigators have scheduled a Feb. 28 deposition for Hunter Biden, who initially refused to testify behind closed doors but relented under the threat that the House would vote to hold him in contempt of Congress.
The House voted in December to formalize an impeachment inquiry after a trio of panels led by Mr. Comer had been conducting an informal impeachment probe for several weeks.
Mr. Comer’s investigation team, sifting through bank records and other documents, has pieced together a money trail from CEFC to Mr. Biden that they say began in July 2017, when Hunter Biden demanded a $10 million payment from a CEFC associate, threatening that his father was sitting next to him and implying there would be retaliation if the money did not materialize.
A CEFC-affiliated company soon sent $5 million to Hudson West III, a venture operated jointly by Hunter Biden and CEFC associate Gongwen Dong. Less than a month later, the money had filtered through the bank account of Hunter Biden’s law firm and into Lion Hall Group, a venture set up by James Biden.
Some of the money was quickly moved to the personal joint bank account of James Biden and his wife, Sara Biden. Sara Biden then wrote a $40,000 check to Joe Biden, identifying it as a “loan repayment.”