Billionaire Russian oligarch Elena Baturina, who wired $3.5 million to an entity connected to Hunter Biden, subsequently landed an invitation to a private D.C. dinner that was attended by then-Vice President Joe Biden, according to emails on Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop.
The dinner, arranged by Hunter and his associates, was held on April 16, 2015, in the posh Garden Room of the Café Milano, one of Washington’s famed power venues. Also invited was Vadym Pozharskyi, representative for the corrupt Ukrainian gas company, Burisma – which was paying Hunter $83,333 per month at the time of the dinner. The dinner was left off the Vice President’s official schedule, highlighting concerns that Hunter was brokering undisclosed access to his father.
An email from Hunter’s laptop shows that on March 20, 2015, Hunter contacted his longtime business partner, Devon Archer, informing Archer that Elena Baturina and her husband, the former mayor of Moscow, had seats at Biden and Archer’s private dinner table. Hunter sent Archer the full guest list, which included other unnamed individuals, informing him the dinner would be on April 16, 2015.
Baturina was Russia’s first female billionaire and haș deep ties in Moscow. She received much of her wealth from corrupt deals with the Russian government. According to a U.S. Senate report:
Baturina became Russia’s only female billionaire when her plastics company, Inteko, received a series of Moscow municipal contracts while her husband was mayor. According to reporting, “Luzhkov used his position as mayor to approve over 20 real estate projects that were built by a Baturina-owned construction company and ultimately generated multibillion-ruble profits for his family.”In addition, a Russian investigation led to a criminal case against the former head of the Bank of Moscow, Andrey Borodin, who “allegedly used money from the Moscow City Budget to lend money to shell companies, which ultimately transferred $443 million to Baturina.”
On Feb. 14, 2014, Baturina wired $3.5 million to a Rosemont Seneca Thornton LLC (Rosemont Seneca Thornton) bank account for a “Consultancy Agreement DD12.02.2014.” Rosemont Seneca Thornton is an investment firm co-founded by Hunter Biden that was incorporated on May 28, 2013 in Wilmington, Del. According to The Financial Times, Rosemont Seneca Thornton is a consortium that consists of Rosemont Seneca Partners and the Thornton Group, a Massachusetts-based firm.In June 2009, Biden co-founded Rosemont Seneca Partners with Archer and Christopher Heinz.The Thornton Group’s website states that it has offices in Boston and Beijing, lists Rosemont Seneca Partners among its list of alliances and clients, and includes photographs from multiple events attended by Hunter Biden.
After Hunter told Archer that Baturina would have seats at their table, Archer replied Baturina and her husband might not attend, claiming they did not want to steal the thunder of another attendee. But Archer added, “she’ll be in town to meet with us” and “We could insist [that Baturina attend],” before the conversation shifted focus to the Burisma representative: Vadym Pozharskyi.
It is not clear whether Baturina attended the Café Milano dinner, or whether she and her husband met with Hunter or his father while she was in Washington.
Then-Vice President Joe Biden reportedly stopped by the dinner event and met with at least two of Hunter Biden’s business associates including the Burisma representative. According to the New York Post’s Miranda Devine:
The dinner, on April 16, 2015, was held in the private “Garden Room” at Café Milano, a Georgetown institution whose catchphrase is: “Where the world’s most powerful people go.”
The next day, Hunter received an email from Vadym Pozharskyi, an executive of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, to thank him for introducing him to his father.
“Dear Hunter, thank you for inviting me to DC and giving an opportunity to meet your father and spent [sic] some time together,” Pozharskyi wrote on April 17, 2015.
“It’s realty [sic] an honor and pleasure.”
At the time, Burisma was paying Hunter $83,333 a month to sit on its board.
In addition to the Russian oligarchs and representative from the corrupt Ukrainian gas company Burisma, the invite list also included Biden and Archer’s Kazakh “friends.”
This event destroys Joe Biden’s repeated assertions that he had never talked with Hunter “about his overseas business dealings” nor met with Hunter’s business partners. An undated photo shows that then-Vice President Biden met with Hunter’s Kazakh business associate in Washington, D.C.
Given the other guests who were invited to the April 2015 dinner—specifically the Russian oligarch, Elena Baturina—the nature of this mysterious dinner event (which the Vice President attended) and all of Hunter Biden’s relationships with Russian oligarchs like Baturina demand further investigation.
Both the Russian oligarch and Ukrainian gas firm Burisma wired millions to Hunter Biden and Archer amid 2014 Ukraine crisis. Given the situation involving Russia and Ukraine today, this April 2015 dinner involving individuals from multiple (formerly) soviet regions warrants further scrutiny.
