Hunter Biden’s name used to legitimize sale of fraudulent tribal bonds

Part II of a series

WAKPAMNI LAKE – The Wakpamni Lake Community Corporation bond scheme that defrauded unwitting investors of more than $60 million, attracted the attention of the Wall Street Journal, because of a high profile name connected to it, Hunter Biden.

The bond offerings by the Wakpamni Lake Community Corporation, promised millions in relief to one of the most impoverished areas in the nation, with little or no economic development opportunities. However the old adage, “If it seems too good to be true, then it probably is” turned out to be true in this case.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s office, in May 2016, seven people connected to the WLCC case were indicted then arrested for securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud; Jason Galanis, Hugh Dunkerley, Gary Hirst, John Galanis, a/k/a “Yanni,” Bevan Cooney, Devon Archer and Michelle Morton. www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/seven-defendants-charged-manhattan-federal-court-defrauding-native-american-tribe-and

The indictment reads, “From March 2014 through April 2016, JOHN GALANIS, ARCHER, and COONEY, along with their co-conspirators Jason Galanis, Hugh Dunkerley, Gary Hirst, and Michelle Morton, engaged in a fraudulent scheme that involved (a) causing the Wakpamni Lake Community Corporation (“WLCC”), a Native American tribal entity, to issue a series of bonds (the “Tribal Bonds”) through lies and misrepresentations; (b) deceptively causing clients of asset management firms controlled by Morton and others to purchase the Tribal Bonds, which the clients were then unable to redeem or sell because the bonds were illiquid and lacked a ready secondary market; and (c) misappropriating the proceeds resulting from those bond sales.”

All of the defendants have been tried and sentenced for varying degrees of securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud.

However during Devon Archer’s trial in June of 2018, an old Yale classmate of Archer’s was repeatedly implicated in the scheme. According to court transcripts Archer was a longtime business partner of Hunter Biden and the pair were connected to an “to an opaque investment company, called Rosemont Seneca Bohai, LLC, which on information and belief, was affiliated with Rosemont Seneca Partners, LLP, an investment company run by Archer’s friend and former college roommate, Hunter Biden.”

Rosemont was started by Archer, Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, and the heir to the Heinz ketchup empire, Christopher Heinz.

According to prosecutors at Archer’s trial, Archer and Biden were also connected to the Burnham Financial Group, “where his business partner Devon Archer — sat on the board of directors.” Biden was listed as the vice-president.

Although Burnham was not named in any court proceedings, they were the alleged placement agent for the Wakpamni Lake Community Corporation tribal bond offerings.

According to an article in the New York Post (nypost.com/2020/01/18/how-five-members-of-joe-bidens-family-got-rich-through-his-connections/) “Burnham became the vehicle for a number of murky deals abroad, involving connected oligarchs in Kazakhstan and state-owned businesses in China.”

“But one of the most troubling Burnham ventures was here in the United States, in which Burnham became the center of a federal investigation involving a $60 million fraud scheme against one of the poorest Indian tribes in America, the Oglala Sioux,” the Post article reads.

According to trial transcripts Biden’s name was used to “drum up business for the scheme,” and lent “legitimacy” because of his father’s political status as vice-president.

“Although Hunter Biden was not charged in the case, his fingerprints were all over Burnham,” the Post article states.

The article alleges that the scheme was “explicitly designed to target pension funds that had ‘socially responsible investing’ clauses, including pension funds of labor union organizations that had publicly supported Joe Biden’s political campaigns in the past.”

Of the 11 pension funds that lost money, eight were government employee or labor union pensions and that both recruiting pension money and alleviating investor’s concerns relied on the Biden name which Jason Galanis in an August 2014 email called “value beyond capitol.”

The Post article states that, “Tim Anderson, a lawyer who did legal work on the issuance of the tribal bonds, recounts seeing Hunter while visiting the Burnham office in New York City to meet with Bevan Cooney, who was later convicted in the case. In the closing arguments at the trial, one of Archer’s defense attorneys, Matthew Schwartz, explained to the jury that it was impossible to talk about the bond scheme without mentioning Hunter Biden’s name. This ‘was perfectly sensible,’ according to Schwartz, ‘because Hunter Biden was part of the Burnham team.’”

The Wall Street Journal also states that during Archer’s trial, the CEO of the WLCC, Raycen Raines told prosecutors that Archer’s and Biden’s names were “thrown around” during discussions about the WLCC deal by Galanis and the attorney representing the tribal corporation.

“So when [the lawyer] told you that Mr. Archer and Hunter Biden were involved in the deal, it leant some credibility, isn’t that right?” Schwartz, Archer’s attorney asked Raines during the trial.

“Yes,” Raines replied at the trial.

However according Hunter Biden’s attorney, who told the Wall Street Journal, (www.wsj.com/articles/hunter-bidens-name-was-used-as-selling-point-in-fraudulent-bond-scheme-11571863676), Hunter Biden knew nothing about the scheme.

The WSJ states that federal prosecutors never alleged that Hunter Biden was aware of the scheme.

“The defendants…invoked and used Hunters name – without his knowledge – to lend their business venture more credibility,” George Mesires, Hunter Biden’s Attorney told the Wall Street Journal. “As soon as Hunter learned of the illegal conduct, and that his name was being used in this unauthorized and inappropriate manner, Hunter took immediate steps to ensure his business interests would not be associated with the Burnham Group or any of its associates.”

Also according to the Wall Street Journal, the judge hearing the fraud case against Archer, wasn’t convinced of his guilt and overturned the verdict against him. Federal prosecutors appealed the judge’s decision to the U.S. Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Burnham shut down shortly after a complaint was filed with the Securities Exchange Commission and is no longer licensed.

(Contact Ernestine Chasing Hawk at production@nativesunnews.today)

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