Devon Archer — Hunter Biden’s Ukraine/China Business Partner — Has Fraud Conviction Re-Instated by Appeals Court and Faces Prison Time

Spread the love

Loading


 
by Shipwreckedcrew

Devon Archer has his conviction for securities fraud re-instated by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.  Archer and two others were convicted by a jury on June 28, 2018, in the Southern District of New York.  On November 15, 2018, the trial judge affirmed the convictions of the other two defendants, but vacated the conviction as to Archer, and granted him a new trial.  The government appealed that decision.

Oral arguments on the appeal took place on November 8, 2019 — 11 months ago.  The Second Circuit issued its decision yesterday, reversing the trial judge’s order for a new trial, and reinstating Archer’s conviction on all counts by the jury.

So, some might be wondering, “Who is Devon Archer?”



Devon Archer is a long-time family friend of the Heinz family in Pennsylvania — the very wealthy family into which John Kerry managed to get his gold-digging fingers when he married Theresa Heinz, the widow of former Pennsylvania Senator John Heinz, who was killed in a plane crash in 1991.

John Kerry became step-father to Christopher Heinz when he married Christopher’s mother.  Devon Archer was Christopher Heinz’s roommate at Yale.  Archer was also co-founder of private-equity firm Rosemont Capital with Christopher Heinz, starting their operation with money from the Rosemont Foundation, the investment arm of the Heinz family fortune.  Archer served as senior adviser to John Kerry during his 2004 presidential bid.

But most importantly for our purposes here, Archer, Heinz, and Hunter Biden were the three founding partners of Rosemont Seneca Partners, and it was Archer who arranged for Hunter Biden to join the Board of Directors of Burisma Holdings, the owner of the largest private natural gas company in Ukraine.  Archer and Biden were also partners in the investments in China made through Rosemont Seneca Bohai, a vehicle created by them for that purpose, and largely funded with money from various Chinese state-owned banks and other financial institutions — all controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.

Devon Archer has been joined at the hip with Hunter Biden just about every step of the way in their travels and investments that hang around the neck of Joe Biden.

The securities fraud case that led to Archer’s conviction occurred during the time frame of 2014-15 and involved in some ways the Rosemont Seneca entities.  I’m not going to detail the fraud scheme here — I’ll save that for a later story — but Archer involved himself with some quite sketchy Wall Street operators which dubious pasts.

The federal court judge who presided over the trial vacating Archer’s conviction and granted him a new trial, based on her view of the evidence that it wasn’t clear Archer was aware of the fraudulent manipulations being undertaken by his business partners in a not-too-complicated bond issuance on behalf of a New York Indian Tribe.  She held that Archer’s actions were consistent with someone under the impression that the bond offering was legitimate, and he was only asked to do things that would be done in the ordinary course of such an undertaking.

The trial judge is a familiar individual if you’ve been paying attention to various anti-Trump efforts by the Democrats and the media — District Judge Ronnie Abrams

Read more

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
3 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Birds of a feather.

Two systems of justice in America; the one that lets liberals off the hook for crimes (which also attacks conservatives for political purposes) and the one that metes out justice. Under Biden/Harris, look for the former to broaden.

How to Understand Joe Biden’s Ukrainian Connection

Joe Biden’s shenanigans in Ukraine need to be understood in the context of the business and political culture of Ukraine and the former Soviet bloc. We must not be naïve — the Ukrainian company Burisma Holding Limited did not hire a druggie like Hunter Biden, the son of the Vice President of the United States Joe Biden, for his expertise or business acumen. It did not hire obscure Devon Archer, a managing partner of Rosemont Seneca Partners, a $2.4 billion private equity firm co-owned by the stepson of John Kerry Christopher Heinz, for his administrative genius, either.

Burisma expected it was hiring the principals, Joe Biden and John Kerry. Hunter Biden and Devon Archer were just bagmen.

The arrangement is called “крыша,” which translates as “roof” in Russian. It means patronage and protection in exchange for an agreed monthly payment, often payable to a third party to ensure deniability. It is important to point out that “roof” is not just criminal jargon, it is a contract. But unlike a legal document secured by a written text, criminals operate outside the law and leave no paper trail.

“Roof” has been prevalent in the post-Soviet era in the territories of the former Soviet Union, where various entities offer protection — organized crime, police, high ranking government officials, and a few other powerful entities. The necessity for “roof” is often part of business planning. Burisma is not an exception.

In 2002, during the tenure of President Viktor Yanukovych, his ecology minister Mykola Zlochevsky registered Burisma Holding Limited on Cyprus. Burisma managed to secure lucrative government licenses for gas field exploration and production to become the largest private gas company in Ukraine. De jure, the licenses for the exploration of natural resources are drafted as bilateral agreements between the government entities and private enterprises, but de facto they are unilateral and revocable grants of privileges by a president and high-ranking government officials to their cronies and supporters.

As long as President Yanukovych was in power Mr. Zlochevsky’s assets were secured from a hostile takeover. President Yanukovych was his “roof,” his protector, defender, and benefactor. But, nothing under the sun is permanent.

In February 2014 Yanukovych was overthrown in a coup and fled the country. Zlochevsky followed him shortly. In a dramatic reversal of fortunes, Burisma overnight changed from one of the strongest to one of the weakest players in Ukrainian power politics. The recourse of the weakest was to find a new “roof” before newly-elected President Petro Poroshenko, who made no secret of his desire to add Burisma to his basket of assets, would be sworn in during June 2014.

It is not known when and who approached John Kerry and or Joe Biden, assuming the deal followed classic local customs, and what was offered in exchange for lobbing and political support. But on April 22, 2014, Devon Archer was put on Burisma’s board. On May 13, 2014, Hunter Biden himself joined the board.

On the same day, Christopher Heinz rushed to dissociate himself and the firm from what looked like an unscrupulous endeavor. He emailed Matt Summers and David Wade, two of his stepfather’s top aides at the State Department, “I can’t speak why they decided to, but there was no investment by our firm in their company,” wrote Heinz.

The passage clearly displayed that the State Department was aware of the arrangement and revealed Christopher Heinz’s concern regarding if not the legitimacy but certainty the ethics of the undertaking.

For Burisma, the impact of having Hunter Biden and Devon Archer on its board could not be overstated. It thought that it had acquired an ultimate “roof” — the Vice President and the Secretary of State of the United States of America. The hiring sent a subliminal message to Poroshenko that Burisma is protected by the US Government.

Poroshenko ignored the message. As soon as he was sworn in, he directed his prosecutor general, Vitaly Yarema, to open a corruption investigation into Burisma in order to build a case to forfeit the profitable gas licenses awarded to Burisma.

In January 2015 Yarema was replaced with Poroshenko’s close associate Viktor Shokin who continued the investigation.

By 2016 the investigation was at its pinnacle and Burisma’s management panicked. They had been contacting the State Department requesting to end the investigation. In spring 2016 Joe Biden was forced to act. He stepped in to protect his client Burisma Holding and demanded Poroshenko to dismiss Shokin. Poroshenko refused.

They said, ‘You have no authority. You’re not the President — Poroshenko said’ … I said, ‘Call him.’ “I looked at them and said, ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money.’ Well, son of a b—-. He got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time,” Biden bragged about his accomplishment.

In a process, Biden inadvertently admitted that President Obama, if not involved, at least was aware of the shady business of his Vice President.

Poroshenko couldn’t fight the President of the United States, and Shokin was fired. At this juncture, Poroshenko decided that it is better to have a percentage of something than a hundred percent of nothing. He made a deal with Zlochevsky and his trusted man Igor Kononenko joined Burisma’s board. The vanquished enemies became allies.

Miraculously, there was no longer a need for investigation and a new prosecutor Yuriy Lutsenko, “who was solid at the time,” closed the probe. There was no longer a need for Joe Biden’s services either. Hunter Biden and Devon Archer eventually resigned from Burisma’s board. Zlochevsky returned to the country. The “roof” earned its pay.