In a major development on Thursday, Hunter Biden, the 53-year-old son of US President Joe Biden, was indicted on nine charges, including three felonies, related to his alleged evasion of over $1 million in taxes over a four-year period.
The charges, filed in the Central District of California, include one count of tax evasion for his 2018 personal taxes and two counts of filing false returns for both his personal taxes and his company, Owasco, PC.
The indictment accuses Hunter Biden of engaging in a four-year scheme to evade at least $1.4 million in federal taxes for the years 2016 through 2019. Special counsel David Weiss asserted that Biden subverted his own company’s payroll and tax withholding process, withdrawing millions from Owasco, PC, to fund an extravagant lifestyle that allegedly included spending on drugs, escorts, luxury hotels, rental properties, exotic cars, and personal items.
Weiss detailed that Hunter Biden used a business line of credit to make payments exceeding $27,000 to a porn site, constituting one-fifth of all expenditures on the credit line. The indictment further alleges nearly $189,000 in spending on adult entertainment, including a $10,000 payment expensed as a “golf club membership” for a sex club.
The charges also include false deductions for consulting fees, which were allegedly payments to various women romantically involved with or providing personal services to Biden. Over $680,000 was reportedly paid to these women during the years when taxes were allegedly not paid.
Notably, the scandal-scarred Biden is already facing three felony counts related to false statements made during the purchase of a firearm. The charges were brought in September by Weiss, after a June plea deal in a Delaware courtroom fell apart. Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty to all charges related to the firearm purchase and faces a maximum of 25 years in prison in that case.
IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley claims that Biden avoided paying taxes on $8.3 million in income received between 2014 and 2019, a period during which he served on the board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings and the Chinese private equity fund BHR Partners. Prosecutors have indicated that the plea agreement does not preclude additional charges against Biden for other alleged crimes, such as potential violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
The case has been assigned to Judge Mark Scarsi, a appointee of former President Donald Trump, adding a political dimension to the legal proceedings. Hunter Biden continues to maintain his innocence in the face of mounting legal challenges.
