Hunter Biden, son of former United States Vice President Joe Biden, has been in the news lately due to his relationship with the Ukrainian gas company Burisma. According to reporting, Hunter Biden had been appointed to the Burisma board in April of 2014, during his father’s tenure as Vice President.
The controversy began to gain traction earlier this year when Rudy Giuliani, President Trump’s lawyer, claimed to have documents proving that Hunter Biden had used his father’s political influence to benefit himself and the company financially.
Yet, despite the allegations, Hunter Biden has maintained that he did not stand to gain anything from his appointment to the Burisma board and instead believes it may have hurt his reputation. “I don’t think there’s a single piece of evidence to suggest that I did anything wrong, much less that I gained anything from being on the board of Burisma,” he said in an interview with ABC News.
Despite these statements, recent reports have suggested that Hunter Biden received millions of dollars in compensation while serving as a member of the Burisma board. According to The New York Times, Hunter Biden received at least $3.5 million in payments from the company between 2014 and 2019. Additionally, he received millions of dollars in additional payments from different Ukrainian companies with ties to Burisma.
As a result, this financial relationship has been a major source of controversy in the 2020 Presidential election, and critics of the president have used this information to argue that Joe Biden had not been forthright with the public about his son’s business dealings.
While Hunter Biden may have legitimately believed he had not stood to gain anything from his Burisma position, the millions of dollars he received suggests otherwise. In response to the recent reports, Hunter Biden has stated that he used the money to fund his lifestyle as a single father of three.
Whether or not one believes his explanation, it is clear that Hunter Biden’s relationship with the Ukrainian gas company has been a major source of controversy in the 2020 Presidential election. The millions of dollars he received casts doubt on Hunter Biden’s claims that he did not stand to gain anything from this transaction, and only time will tell what the true ramifications are.