President Biden’s nephew — while working in the Obama administration’s Treasury Department — shared tips with eldest son Hunter Biden about China’s largest sovereign wealth fund, which he then sought out as a potential investment opportunity, according to emails on his abandoned laptop.
Casey Owens, the daughter of first sister Valerie Biden Owens, told her cousin and business partner at the defunct Rosemont Seneca Advisors about an investment conference held by the China Investment Corporation (CIC) while working as a special assistant for the department’s US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue, email draft of April 12, 2010.
“FYI regarding the recent CIC investment conference at a resort in Sanya, on Hainan Island, on the weekend of March 27-28,” Owens wrote to Hunter and his partner Eric Schwerin in a dispatch from his official Treasury email account, along text from an article by AsianInvestor.com.
The conference was billed as a “coming out” party for the sovereign wealth fund, which holds hundreds of billions of dollars, after the successful return of its international investments the previous year, according to the department.
Hunter Biden had met and posed for photos with CIC General Manager and Chief Investment Officer Gao Xiqing a few days earlier, according to a 2020 report on his overseas efforts compiled by Senate Republicans.
As chairman of Rosemont Seneca, Hunter has “visited Chinese financial institutions and fund companies from April 7 to 9,” according to an April 12, 2010 press release from Boston investment advisory firm Thornton Group, “aiming to deepen mutual understanding and explore possible cooperation and commercial opportunities.” “
Casey Owens, daughter of first sister Valerie Biden Owens, told her cousin and business partner about an investment conference held by the China Investment Corporation.Twitter
Owens made his own trip to China next month, as part of a US delegation led by then-Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. During the visit, then-Chinese Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao presented Owens with a “small jade vase as a birthday present,” according to an article in his high school’s alumni magazine, the Tower Hill Bulletin.
Owens shares tips with Hunter Biden about China’s largest sovereign wealth fund.REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Hunter was “visiting Chinese financial institutions and fund companies from April 7 to 9,” according to a 2010 press release. Getty Images/David McNew
The US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue team “worked very closely” with Zhu, the article said.
A few months later, Owens shared a Bloomberg News article highlighting a “record year” for CIC after the 2008 financial crisis and was in touch with another Rosemont Seneca associate to discuss coordination between government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) and China.
“In light of our conversation about the GSE and China, I would like to put you in touch with Hunter’s cousin, Casey Owens, who is at the Treasury Department and works on the Strategic Economic Dialogue,” Schwerin wrote in an Aug. 4, 2010, email to his associate, Jack Casey. “I have cc:ed Casey on this email. Feel free to contact him directly, he expects to hear from you.”
“Jack, It’s nice to talk at your convenience,” Owens replied. Schwerin also forwarded the exchange to Hunter.
Eric Schwerin linked Hunter and Devon Archer in an email with the world’s top sovereign wealth fund ratings.Rod Lamkey – CNP
Fox News first reported the emails between Owens, Hunter and his associates, and a source familiar with the situation told the Rosemont outlet Seneca is likely pursuing CIC to invest in their client.
A year later, Schwerin reeled in Hunter and fellow Rosemont Seneca co-founder Devon Archer on an email with the world’s top sovereign wealth fund ratings — including CIC, which listed $332 billion in assets at the time.
“Let’s discuss today what else we can do to connect with this group,” Archer said in response to a March 8, 2011 email, noting their next meeting was scheduled with the CIC on April 21.
The meeting took place the following month, The Post previously reported, although there was no evidence that an agreement was ever reached between the parties.
Owens also apparently emailed his uncle while he was vice president, according to communications on Hunter’s laptop, and in one email said he was “deeply” affected by the “extraordinary” statement he gave to his Treasury team.
Owens wrote to Hunter and his partner Eric Schwerin in a letter sent from his official Treasury email account, along with text from an article by AsianInvestor.com.
Email exchange between Schwerin and Owens.
“That’s really something else, Uncle Joe. How to get out of the Treasury,” he wrote on May 10, 2011, to a pseudonymous email address titled [email protected].
“I’m almost ashamed of how deeply today has affected me. I’m glad to be close to you, and I just want to say thank you for including me,” he told the account, named for the mascot of Archmere Academy, where Biden and his son attended high school.
Two years later, Rosemont and Thornton would form the private investment fund BHR Partners with two Chinese entities linked to the state-owned Bank of China.
Jonathan Li is the CEO of BHR Partners.
Biden, still as vice president, “had coffee” with BHR Partners CEO Jonathan Li that same year and Hunter later put his father on speakerphone with the executive, according to sworn congressional testimony Archer gave in July.
As recently as late 2021, Hunter was known to hold a 10% stake in the company, which manages $2.1 billion in assets.
Owens got his job at the Treasury Department shortly after his uncle took over as veep and stayed there for two years before leaving to move up the corporate ranks at Starbucks, where he now works as a vice president, according to his LinkedIn profile.
He did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The White House, the Treasury Department and Hunter’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, also did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
