Former Biden family business associate Jason Galanis told lawmakers last month that Joe Biden was used repeatedly to get deals “across the finish line.”
On Monday, the House Oversight Committee released the transcript of lawmakers’ interview with Jason Galanis, who was a colleague of Hunter Biden and Devon Archer between 2012 and 2015. Their goal, Galanis said, “was to make billions, not millions.”
Access to Vice President Biden, according to House testimony, was one of their primary products sold to foreign businessmen.
“Our business included the acquisition of an 85-year-old Wall Street firm, Burnham and Company, the $1.5 billion surviving division of Drexel, Burnham, Lambert, and, combining that with other businesses in insurance and wealth management we owned and acquired,” Galanis explained. “Burnham was the focal point for integrating a, quote, Biden family office into a large-scale financial company with international influence.”
Hunter Biden and Devon Archer, Galanis said, relied on Biden, then vice president, to grow their business.
“I recall being with Hunter Biden and Devon Archer at the Peninsula Bar in New York where Hunter took a call from his father,” Galanis said. Hunter Biden explained the need for “help getting across the finish line” on a deal related to a $300 billion Chinese financial services company “closely connected to the Chinese Communist Party.”
“It was not the only time I’ve heard Hunter call his father regarding business matters,” Galanis said. “I was present when Hunter called his father on a cell phone and put the call on speaker.”
Galanis said the vice president was put on speaker in 2014 with Yelena Baturina, the widow of an ex-mayor of Moscow who gifted Hunter Biden $3.5 million that same year. Baturina was notably absent from the Biden administration’s sanctions shortly unveiled following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“I recall being stunned by this call,” Galanis said. “It was clear to me that this was a prearranged call with his father meant to impress the Russian investors that Hunter had access to his father and all the power and prestige of that position.”
Archer, who also served with Hunter Biden on the board of Burisma, told lawmakers in August the Biden name was the “brand” used to cultivate investors and intimidate opponents. Archer also said Hunter Biden routinely dialed in the vice president on speakerphone.
“I think at the end of the day, part of what was delivered is the brand,” Archer said. “I mean, it’s like anything, you know, if you’re Jamie Dimon’s son or any CEO. You know, I think that’s what we’re talking about, is that there was brand being delivered along with other capabilities and reach. … I think ‘brand’ is the best way to describe it.”
Galanis learned a few days following the conversation with Baturina that the Russian billionaire “committed to a, quote, hard order of [$]10 to $20 million in a Burnham investment banking client.”
Galanis is currently serving a 14-year prison sentence for securities fraud, which Galanis claimed also involved Archer and Hunter Biden.
“As I reviewed the facts,” Galanis said, “I realized the prosecutors in the SDNY, Southern District of New York, had gone lightly on Devon Archer and had not indicted Hunter Biden at all.”
“I believe the SDNY’s prosecution strategy was intended to protect Hunter Biden and, ultimately, Vice President Biden,” Galanis added.
Hunter Biden himself testified before the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees last week. Wyoming Republican Rep. Harriet Hageman, who serves on the Judiciary Committee, told The Federalist the testimony made clear Hunter Biden didn’t have anything to offer “other than the access to his father.” Galanis said the same thing in February.
“The entire value add of Hunter Biden to our business was his family name and his access to his father, Vice President Joe Biden,” Galanis said.
