How many reminders do we need about the massive influence-peddling operation of the Biden family? Politico’s Ben Schreckinger must wonder about that question, too. He has spent the last few years outlining the Biden family business, operated by Joe Biden’s brothers and his son Hunter, and even wrote a book (The Bidens: Inside the First Family’s Fifty-Year Rise to Power) about it — which the media largely ignored.
Schreckinger returned yesterday to explain how the Biden Inc family business factored into a major Medicare fraud. Jim Biden explicitly pitched his brother’s influence in government in winning a consultancy contract from Americore despite having zero experience in the health-care sector, which led to a massive failure that still wreaks havoc in rural areas:
For then 67-year-old Jim Biden, the third of four Biden siblings, his ties to his older brother made up much of his pitch as he pursued deals that could help Americore make money from drug rehab, lab testing and even cancer treatment.
“This would be a perfect platform to expose my Brothers team to [your] protocol,” Jim Biden wrote to the CEO of a Tampa-area company that controlled licensing rights to an experimental cancer treatment the hospital operator wanted to offer. “Could provide a great opportunity for some real exposure.”
Note: James wasn’t talking about Frank. (We’ll get back to Frank shortly, however.) But James did talk about giving The Big Guy a piece of the action:
Jim Biden spoke of plans to give his brother equity in Americore, according to one former Americore executive, and install him on its board, according to a second. He also said that if Americore could find a winning business model for rural health care, his brother could promote the company in a future presidential campaign, a third former executive told POLITICO. All were granted anonymity to discuss a company mired in legal and political controversy
In order to fund Americore’s expansion, Jim Biden offered to secure capital from investors in the Middle East, according to the emails and executives. When the expected money did not arrive, it aggravated Americore’s preexisting financial issues. The company collapsed, leaving behind unpaid bills and neglected patients.
James Biden’s role in the Americore collapse isn’t exactly news at this point. Schreckinger wrote about it repeatedly in 2020, which I noted in March and December of that year too. Hardly any other mainstream media outlet bothered to pursue it, even though Americore’s collapse became a major crisis in providing health care to rural and poorer Americans. And it wasn’t just the collapse, but the fraud that the collapse uncovered. The Department of Justice estimates that $100 million or more was involved, including kickbacks to officials to charge Medicare for unnecessary and/or non-existent work.
According to Schreckinger, the DoJ investigation has turned up evidence that James used Joe’s name and influence more than initially reported, and that James himself was much more directly part of Americore’s operations as well:
The investigation — based on public records, court filings, dozens of interviews and hundreds of exclusively obtained internal documents — reveals that Jim Biden’s role at Americore was larger than previously reported: In some internal documents and investor materials his name is included among its top handful of leaders. He also helped the company seal regulatory approval to acquire the Pennsylvania hospital and personally fired Americore’s chief financial officer, according to the emails obtained by POLITICO.
The investigation also reveals that Joe Biden’s name and inner circle were more involved with the company than has been understood: In addition to the accounts provided by former executives, investor materials described Jim Biden as an adviser to his older brother. And on top of Joe Biden’s own previously reported encounter with the firm’s CEO, at least three of Joe Biden’s relatives did work with Americore. They include Jim Biden’s wife, Sara, and his son, Jamie. The president’s son, Hunter Biden also met with its CEO, and his personal doctor — current White House physician Kevin O’Connor — joined a meeting with Jim Biden and the president of a hospital being acquired by Americore, according to a former executive and emails obtained by POLITICO.
The intersection of Hunter and James seems interesting for a couple of reasons. James may have been selling Joe’s influence, but Hunter’s e-mails in his own deals made clear that Joe was getting a direct benefit from Biden Inc. So far as we know, James was more discreet, but as Schreckinger points out, House investigators have already pieced together a $200,000 Americore payment to James at the same time James cut a big check for The Big Guy. Joe insists James was repaying a loan, but won’t offer any details about when Joe loaned the money and on what basis.
Be sure to click the link and read it all from Schreckinger, because you won’t read about it in the Washington Post or the New York Times.
Oh, wait — I promised something about Frank. Here’s our friend Salena Zito with the timely reminders about the breadth and nature of Biden Inc. This appeared in the Washington Examiner almost exactly three years ago:
The ad bragged about Frank’s relationship & shared values he had with his brother & focuses on the law firm’s role in a case against sugar cane growers and nonlawyer Frank Biden’s part in that litigation. pic.twitter.com/XLqIPX3gcd
— ZitoSalena (@ZitoSalena) February 19, 2024
On the morning of his brother’s inauguration, Frank Biden appeared smiling broadly in an advertorial (an ad designed to look like a news article) for the Berman Law Group, the Florida law firm for which he works as a nonlawyer.
The advertorial bragged about Frank Biden’s relationship and shared values he has with his brother and focuses on the law firm’s role in a case against sugar cane growers and nonlawyer Frank Biden’s part in that litigation.
After a while, you give up counting the number of times Frank Biden’s connection with Joe Biden is mentioned, and the ad didn’t even try to be elusive in relating the firm’s work with the values of Biden’s agenda. As in: “For Biden it’s a question of judgement, not morals — a lesson his older brother, the president-elect Joseph Biden Jr., has ingrained in him.”
All the dots have been out in plain sight for over four years. The media not only didn’t want to report it, they actively suppressed it when evidence of corruption came to light from Hunter’s laptop. Consider that, and then ask yourself where the corruption and influence-peddling really starts and ends — if it ends at all.
