The White House has flagged money laundering within the art industry this week for corruption while supporting Hunter Biden in transferring his artwork to some anonymous purchasers for as high as $500,000.
The first paper of this kind named the U.S. Strategy on Countering Corruption is focused on exploring the ways that “government leaders abuse their public power to private enrich themselves.”
Though the Biden Administration’s report specifically centered on the art industry as the “market” where financial crimes happen, it did not reveal the Biden family’s connection with such corruption, like Hunter’s art selling scheme to wealthy investors while his father is in the oval office.
Hunter Biden proclaimed Thursday it is "courageous" to sell "art" to "anonymous" investors for $500,000.00. https://t.co/spF9lcjsY9
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) July 31, 2021
Hunter has allegedly sold multiple art pieces for $75,000 and up to anonymous people, and the NY Times reported first lady Jill Biden has shown Hunter’s art in the White House.
The Biden team has defended Hunter’s art scheme as being in line with “the highest ethical rules.” Nevertheless, the report mentioned the following about the criminal pliability of the art industry:
“The art markets—and the market participants who support transactions—are very vulnerable to an assortment of financial crimes. With opacity, lack of predictable pricing, and inherent cross-border movement of goods, make this market perfect for illicit value transfer, evading sanctions, and corruption.”
The art industry’s corruption is large. Art “can be smuggled or hidden,” the National Law Review says. “Transactions are usually private, and prices are subjective and easily manipulated — as well as very high”:
“Once bought, the art could disappear for years, even for decades. Art is often bought at auctions and goes to freeports – very secure warehouses for the collections of billionaires, from Picassos and gold to fine wine and vintage Ferraris.”
“The freeports, which are established in Luxembourg, Switzerland, and Singapore, give a variety of tax advantages because these goods stored inside them are being moved. The Economist magazine said that the freeport established close to the Geneva airport alone is believed to have $100 billion (U.S.) of art.”
The Biden Administration report also spoke of tax crimes as being “interconnected” corruption with money laundering. “As one example, a World Bank report of 25,000 firms in 57 nations discovered that groups that pay more bribes also avoid more taxes,” the report said.
In 2013, Joe Biden and Hunter Biden flew aboard Air Force Two to China. Ten days later, Hunter Biden's firm scored a $1.5 billion deal with a subsidiary of the Communist Chinese government's Bank of China. https://t.co/HA4HJmKYFk
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) September 13, 2021
Hunter is now being investigated for money and tax laundering schemes, CNN first detailed this in 2020. The FBI is allegedly looking into whether Hunter and his partners broke “tax or money laundering laws in their business dealings in other countries, especially China, according to two insiders briefed on the investigation.”
Author: Scott Dowdy
