House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Wednesday demanding Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) on the Ukraine energy firm Burisma and several individuals involved with the firm from August 2014 to the present. Comer gave a July 12 deadline. In addition to stating the committee is investigation bribery allegations against Joe Biden, Comer stated the committee has several legislative purposes to its investigation involving whether new laws need to be enacted to require disclosures by relatives of presidents and vice presidents.
The demand by Comer follows the disclosure in a FBI FD-1023 form in which a trusted confidential source informed the FBI a Burisma executive had told him that he had engaged in a bribery scheme while Joe Biden was vice president that paid $5 million each to Joe and his son Hunter Biden in exchange for favorable policy decisions and actions. The Burisma executive said he structured the payments such that it would take ten years to sort it out. The executive also said he made audio recordings of conversations he had with Joe and Hunter–two tapes with Joe and fifteen with Hunter.
Comer spoke with Sean Hannity on the Fox News Channel Wednesday night about his demand for the Burisma SARs reports and his belief they might shed light on the alleged payments to the Bidens.
Comer’s press release (followed by the letter):
Comer Demands Suspicious Activity Reports Related to Burisma and Alleged Biden Bribery Scheme
WASHINGTON—House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) today is demanding U.S. Department of the Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen provide all suspicious activity reports (SARs) for several individuals and entities related to Burisma, a Ukrainian-based energy company. An unclassified FBI-generated record from June 30, 2020 memorializes a confidential human source’s conversations with a Burisma executive who claimed then-Vice President Joe Biden solicited and received a bribe in exchange for certain actions.
“The FBI has been sitting on allegations for years that Joe Biden solicited and received a bribe while he was Vice President of the United States. We have no confidence that the FBI did anything to verify the allegations contained within this record and may have intentionally withheld it during the investigation into Hunter Biden’s tax evasion. In fact, an IRS whistleblower said that this critical evidence was withheld from tax investigators who have since revealed they had potentially corroborating evidence during the investigation. The House Oversight and Accountability Committee is continuing to pursue financial records to follow the Bidens’ money trail to help inform legislative solutions to strengthen public corruption laws. Secretary Yellen must provide financial records related to Burisma executives and entities to help further our investigation to determine whether foreign actors targeted the Bidens, President Biden is compromised, and national security is threatened,” said Chairman Comer.
According to an IRS whistleblower’s supplemental submission provided to the House Ways and Means Committee, the FD-1023 form was not shared with tax investigators. The whistleblower emphasized it would have been relevant to the investigation since they had email correspondence from May 2014 referencing a $5 million payment.
In the letter to Secretary Yellen, Chairman Comer requests all SARs in Treasury’s custody, filed by financial institutions April 2014 to present, for the following individuals and entities:
Burisma and all corporate affiliates and subsidiaries; Mykola Zlochevsky; Karina Zlochevska; Vadym Pozharskyi; Alexander Kotlarsky; Vuk Jeremic; Center for International Relations and Sustainable Development
Comer’s letter to Yellen (footnotes at source):
Dear Secretary Yellen:
The Committee on Oversight and Accountability has reviewed government documents that allege President Biden, while serving as Vice President, solicited and received a bribe from a foreign source in return for certain actions. These allegations are consistent with the Committee’s ongoing investigation of the Biden family’s foreign business transactions—transactions that subpoenaed bank records have revealed allowed Biden family members and associates to profit over $10 million from foreign sources.1
The Committee is investigating the allegations it has reviewed and seeks documents in the Department of the Treasury’s (Treasury) control, including certain Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) on file with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. The Committee seeks to craft legislative solutions aimed at deficiencies it has identified in the current legal framework regarding ethics laws and disclosure of financial interests related to the immediate family members of Vice Presidents and Presidents—deficiencies that may place American national security and interests at risk. The Committee is concerned that foreign nationals have sought access and influence by engaging in lucrative business relationships with high-profile political figures’ immediate family members, including members of the Biden family.
The Committee is investigating the national security implications of a Vice President’s or President’s (and candidates for such offices) immediate family members receiving millions of dollars from foreign nationals, foreign companies, or foreign governments without any oversight. Current financial disclosure laws and regulations do not require non-dependent family members of senior elected officials to provide any information to the public. The Committee is seeking meaningful reforms to government ethics and disclosure laws that will provide necessary transparency into a Vice President’s or President’s immediate family members’ income, assets, and financial relationships.
The Committee intends to craft legislation that would strengthen reporting requirements related to certain foreign transactions involving senior elected officials’ family members and that would implement robust financial disclosure requirements that shed light on ownership of opaque corporate entities. Moreover, in order to prevent financial transactions from being structured in a way to evade oversight, the Committee is examining whether certain reporting requirements, including any new reporting requirements for senior elected officials’ family members, should extend for a period of time after a President or Vice President leaves office.
The Committee also seeks to strengthen the Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering laws by analyzing whether financial institutions have the available tools and support from federal agencies to thwart illegal money laundering and foreign corruption activity. The Committee is evaluating whether SARs generated by personal and corporate bank accounts associated with a Vice President’s or President’s immediate family members should undergo a more rigorous banking compliance process, receive an expedited review by law enforcement without undue influence by political appointees, and be disclosed to Congress, under certain circumstances, given potential political corruption and risks to our national security.
The Committee aims to draft legislation that delivers more transparency to the American people, deters foreign interests from attempting to obtain influence over and access to the highest levels of the federal government by entering into business deals with presidential and vice presidential family members, discourages such family members from capitalizing on their relatives’ public service, and ensures the nation is safe from foreign adversaries.
To assist with this investigation, please provide Committee staff access no later than July 12, 2023, to all SARs in Treasury’s custody—filed by financial institutions from April 2014 to present—for the following individuals and entities:
1. Burisma and all corporate affiliates and subsidiaries thereof including, but not limited
to, Brociti Investments Limited;
2. Mykola Zlochevsky;
3. Karina Zlochevska;
4. Vadym Pozharskyi;
5. Alexander Kotlarsky;
6. Vuk Jeremic; and
7. Center for International Relations and Sustainable Development.
The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is the principal oversight committee of the U.S. House of Representatives and has broad authority to investigate “any matter” at “any time” under House Rule X. Thank you for your prompt attention to this important investigation.
Sincerely,
James Comer
Chairman
Committee on Oversight and Accountability
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