LOS ANGELES: The Department of Justice on Thursday filed new criminal charges against US President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, accusing him of failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes while spending millions of dollars on a lavish lifestyle.
Hunter Biden, 53, was hit with three felony and six misdemeanor tax offenses, according to an indictment filed in US District Court, Central District of California.
He faces up to 17 years in prison if convicted. The Justice Department said its investigation into Biden is ongoing.
“The Defendant engaged in a four-year scheme to not pay at least $1.4 million in self-assessed federal taxes he owed for tax years 2016 through 2019,” the indictment read.
It added that he had instead spent huge sums “on drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing, and other items of a personal nature” including over $70,000 on drug rehabilitation.
A lawyer for Hunter Biden did not immediately reply to a request for comment. The White House declined to comment.
It was not clear when Hunter Biden would appear in court.
The indictment says Hunter Biden “earned handsomely” while serving on the boards of Burisma, a Ukrainian industrial conglomerate, and a Chinese private equity fund.
Prosecutors said that between 2016 and October 2020, he received more than $7 million in total gross income.
That included nearly $2.3 million from his position on the board of directors of Burisma between 2016 and 2019, the filing says.
Hunter Biden’s affiliation with Burisma has been the focus of years of attacks from Republican lawmakers who have accused him of leveraging his family name to make money overseas.
“The Defendant had a legal obligation to pay taxes on all his income, including income earned in Ukraine from his service on Burisma’s Board, fees generated by deal-making with the Chinese private equity fund, as well as income derived from his work as a lawyer and other sources,” the indictment said.
Adding to Hunter Biden’s income was work for CEFC China Energy Co. Ltd, a Chinese energy conglomerate.
As Hunter Biden’s income increased, so did his spending, according to the filing.
In 2018 alone, the indictment read, Hunter Biden “spent more than $1.8 million, including approximately $772,000 in cash withdrawals, approximately $383,000 in payments to women, approximately $151,000 in clothing and accessories.”
The indictment added: “The Defendant did not use any of these funds to pay his taxes in 2018.”
Hunter Biden in October pleaded not guilty to charges in Delaware that he lied about his drug use while buying a handgun, in the first criminal prosecution of a sitting US president’s child.
US Special Counsel David Weiss, who is leading the probe into Hunter Biden, was appointed Delaware US attorney by former President Donald Trump. He was made special counsel by Attorney General Merrick Garland in August.
He brought charges in Delaware against Hunter Biden after the unraveling of an earlier proposed plea deal that had called for him to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges for failing to pay taxes in 2017 and 2018, an agreement which likely would have allowed him to avoid prison.
US District Judge Maryellen Noreika rejected the proposed plea deal in July, raising concerns over its legality and the scope of immunity it offered.
Trump, the leading contender to be the Republican Party’s nominee in next year’s presidential election, said the plea deal amounted to favorable treatment for the president’s son.
Hunter Biden hit with federal charges for evading tax
https://arab.news/r6ssk
Hunter Biden hit with federal charges for evading tax
- Presidential son faces up to 17 years in prison if convicted
- US justice department says its investigation into Biden is ongoing
Albanian port awaits first migrant transfer from Italy
- The five-year deal with Albania, estimated to cost Italy 160 million euros ($175 million) annually, covers adult male migrants intercepted by Italian vessels in international waters, but within Italy’s search and rescue area
SHENGJIN, Albania: The fishermen in Shengjin barely give a look at the temporary cabins built on one side of the Albanian port that Italy considers a groundbreaking scheme in Europe’s campaign against undocumented migrants.
Sixteen men from Bangladesh and Egypt, rescued in the Mediterranean on Sunday, are set to become the first residents at the Shengjin migrant center on Wednesday.
The migrant scheme could be discussed at a European Union summit this week. But Arben Leli is more worried about whether the fish bite.
“I don’t care about migrants, when they arrive, when they leave, what they do,” Leli told AFP as he tended his nets.
“I have the sea, I want to fish, that’s my life,” the 56-year-old added.
Nearby, Dashamira Deda was pulling fish from a net.
The mother-of-two, who works with her husband on a boat, said that “human nature is to think first of ourselves and then of what’s going on around us... the best thing was to leave us alone.”
Deda said the people of Shengjin, with its population of about 8,000, did not want to appear callous, but they have other pressing concerns, including making a living.
“We are just hoping it’s for a good cause without harming our lives,” the 42-year-old added, without even a glance at the center’s high walls.
But this center, and another in nearby Gjader, has been drawing growing European attention since Italy’s Prime Minister Georgia Meloni struck a deal with Albanian counterpart Edi Rama to become the first EU country to create migrant processing centers outside the bloc.
Shengjin’s seaside hotels are a summer tourist draw. But Albania’s third largest port has seen its size reduced by 4,000 square meters (43,000 square feet) so that the migrant camp, protected by high gates and Italian soldiers and police, could be built.
The five-year deal with Albania, estimated to cost Italy 160 million euros ($175 million) annually, covers adult male migrants intercepted by Italian vessels in international waters, but within Italy’s search and rescue area.
An initial screening at sea will determine which migrants are from countries considered “safe,” which could make repatriation simpler.
In Shengjin, migrants will undergo registration and health checks, and then they will be sent to the other center in Gjader to await the processing of asylum claims.
The Gjader facility includes a section for migrants whose asylum applications have been rejected, as well as a small jail.
Human rights groups have questioned the protections offered for asylum seekers. Amnesty International has called the centers a “cruel experiment (that) is a stain on the Italian government.”
Meloni on Tuesday called it a “courageous” move that could be set up in other non-EU countries.
Macron says Israel PM ‘mustn’t forget his country created by UN decision’
- “Mr Netanyahu must not forget that his country was created by a decision of the UN,” Macron told the weekly French cabinet meeting
- “Therefore this is not the time to disregard the decisions of the UN“
PARIS: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should not forget his country was created as a result of a resolution adopted by the United Nations, French President Emmanuel Macron told cabinet on Tuesday, urging Israel to abide by UN decisions.
Tensions have increased between Netanyahu and Macron with the French leader last week insisting that stopping the export of weapons used by Israel in Gaza and Lebanon was the only way to stop the conflicts.
France has also repeatedly denounced Israeli fire against UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, who include a French contingent.
“Mr Netanyahu must not forget that his country was created by a decision of the UN,” Macron told the weekly French cabinet meeting, referring to the resolution adopted in November 1947 by the United Nations General Assembly on the plan to partition Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state.
“Therefore this is not the time to disregard the decisions of the UN,” he added, as Israel wages a ground offensive against the Iran-backed Shiite militant group Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, where the UN peacekeepers are deployed.
His comments from the closed door meeting at the Elysee Palace were quoted by a participant who spoke to AFP and asked not to be named.
UN Security Council Resolution 1701 states that only the Lebanese army and the UN peacekeeping mission UNIFIL should be deployed in southern Lebanon.
Netanyahu on Sunday called on the UN to move the 10,000 strong peacekeeping force, who include 700 French troops, deployed in south Lebanon out of “harm’s way,” saying Hezbollah was using them as “human shields.”
Later on Tuesday, Netanyahu hit back at Macron’s comments, saying the country’s founding was achieved by the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, not a UN ruling.
“A reminder to the president of France: It was not the UN resolution that established the State of Israel, but rather the victory achieved in the war of independence with the blood of heroic fighters, many of whom were Holocaust survivors — including from the Vichy regime in France,” Netanyahu said to a statement.
India-Canada relations reach historic lows as top diplomats expelled
- Relations fraught since the murder of a Sikh separatist leader in British Columbia last year
- Canadian PM says Indian officials identified as ‘persons of interest’ in the assassination plot
NEW DELHI: Relations between India and Canada have reached a historic low as the countries expelled each other’s diplomats in an ongoing row over the killing of a Sikh separatist activist on Canadian soil.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused India’s government on Monday of “supporting criminal activity against Canadians here on Canadian soil,” and the country’s Foreign Ministry announced the expulsion of six Indian diplomats, including the high commissioner.
The ministry said Canadian police had gathered evidence, which identified them as “persons of interest” in last year’s killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was gunned down in Surrey, British Columbia.
India immediately rejected the accusations as absurd, and its Ministry of External Affairs said it was expelling Canada’s acting high commissioner, his deputy, and the embassy’s four first secretaries.
Before the announcement, it also summoned the Canadian charge d’affaires and said it was withdrawing its high commissioner and “other targeted diplomats,” contradicting Canada’s statement of expulsion.
“Prime Minister Trudeau has been making these public statements repeatedly, but the evidence that he claims to possess is not available to us so we cannot make any kind of a judgment,” Dr. Ajai Sahni, executive director of the Institute for Conflict Management in New Delhi, told Arab News.
“This is the first time the relationship is so low … It has created a lot of problems and it has done damage to relationships between the two countries for the time being.”
This is not the first time India-Canada relations have been strained. In 1974, after India conducted its first nuclear weapon test, it drew outrage from Canada, which accused it of extracting plutonium from a Canadian reactor, a gift intended for peaceful use.
Ottawa subsequently suspended its support for New Delhi’s nuclear energy program.
“The relationship was also low in the 1980s with the hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane and the bombing of the plane, in which many people died,” said Prof. Ronki Ram, political science lecturer at the Punjab University.
The explosion from a bomb planted by Canada-based militants killed 329 people — the worst terrorist attack in Canadian history. India had warned the Canadian government about the possibility of attacks and accused the Canadian Security Intelligence Service of not acting on it.
But the current strain in relations is the first in which diplomats have been withdrawn.
“This is the first time that the relationship has gone down so low,” Ram said.
“Allegations and counter-allegations will have serious implications both internationally and domestically. The Indian government should look into the allegations and try to address them.”
Nijjar, a Sikh Canadian citizen, was gunned down in June 2023 outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, which has a significant number of Sikh residents. He was an outspoken supporter of the Khalistan movement, which calls for a separate Sikh homeland in parts of India’s Punjab state.
The movement is outlawed in India, considered a national security threat by the government, and Nijjar’s name appears on the Indian Home Ministry’s list of terrorists.
Canada has the largest population of Sikhs outside their native state of Punjab — about 770,000 or 2 percent of its entire population.
“Many Panjabi diaspora are in Canada, and a mini-Punjab has been established there,” Ram said.
“The government is taking an electoral interest in the landscape of Canada also. Those things are becoming very critical.”
Russia releases man whose daughter’s drawing opposed Ukraine fighting
- Alexei Moskalyov was convicted in March 2023 on the basis of posts that he made on a social media site
- The post came to authorities’ attention after his daughter, then age 13, made a drawing in school opposing the military operation
MOSCOW: A Russian man convicted of discrediting the military after his daughter made a drawing criticizing Russia’s military actions in Ukraine was released from prison after serving 22 months, a group that monitors political detentions said Tuesday.
Alexei Moskalyov was convicted in March 2023 on the basis of posts that he made on a social media site. The post came to authorities’ attention after his daughter, then age 13, made a drawing in school opposing the military operation.
Moskalyov was sentenced to two years in prison, but he fled. He was arrested in Belarus a day later and extradited to Russia. A court later reduced his sentence to a year and 10 months.
The OVD-Info group, which reported his release, said that Moskalyov told it that agents of the Federal Security Service questioned other inmates in his unit before he was released and suggested they were looking for cause to file new charges against him.
Since sending troops into Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has cracked down harshly on criticism of the military and the operation in Ukraine. Several prominent opponents of the fighting who were sentenced to lengthy prison terms — one of them to 25 years — were freed and sent out of the country in August in a widescale prisoner exchange with the West.
Canada lists pro-Palestinian group Samidoun as a ‘terrorist’ entity
- “Canada will not tolerate this type of activity,” Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said
OTTAWA: Canada, in coordination with the United States, on Tuesday designated the pro-Palestinian group Samidoun as a “terrorist entity” alleging that it had links with another terrorist-designated group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
“The listing of Samidoun as a terrorist entity under the Criminal Code sends a strong message that Canada will not tolerate this type of activity, and will do everything in its power to counter the ongoing threat to Canada’s national security and all people in Canada,” Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said in a statement.
