Federal investigators in South Florida have scrutinized transactions linked to first brother James Biden as part of an ongoing criminal probe linked to a now-bankrupt rural hospital chain.
The Sunshine State investigation, two people familiar with the matter told Politico, examined efforts by President Biden’s younger sibling and his partners to woo investment in the chain — Americore Health — as well as other ventures from the Middle East.
James Biden’s efforts on behalf of Americore helped yield a $200,000 payment to his brother Joe — the circumstances of which are now part of a House impeachment inquiry into the president.
Meanwhile, federal prosecutors in a Medicare fraud case out of Pennsylvania sought information about James Biden’s activities as recently as last year, according to a third Politico source. That case involves an Americore hospital netting tens of millions of dollars in unlawful Medicare repayments.
Federal investigators in Florida have looked into transactions connected to first brother James Biden as part of an ongoing criminal investigation, Politico reported Tuesday. AP
“Jim Biden is not being investigated by federal law enforcement in Florida or Pennsylvania,” his attorney, Paul Fishman, said in a statement.
Reps for the US Attorney’s Offices for the Southern District of Florida and the Western District of Pennsylvania declined comment when contacted by The Post.
James Biden testified to Congress last month that he had been “looking for investments from Qatar” to finance Americore’s operations but later raised $20 million with the help of Michael Lewitt, who runs the Florida-based investment advisory firm Third Friday.
James added that he received $600,000 to arrange the payments from Third Friday to Americore as bridge loans — but the management firm did not inform its investors of the tens of millions of dollars that were transferred.
In 2022, those investors filed a suit in Palm Beach County, Fla. that alleged Lewitt had kept them in the dark about the “sham” Americore loans and stolen millions from the Third Friday fund to line his pockets and pay James Biden.
The SEC also filed civil charges against Lewitt in September 2023 over the move, noting “45 separate loan advances totaling more than $19 million” to Americore “between January 2018 and November 2019,” when it went bankrupt.
Joe Biden received $200,000 from his brother on March 1, 2018, the same day that James Biden received an identical $200,000 payment from Americore. Corbis via Getty Images
The FBI has been involved in that case, according to Politico.
Joe Biden received $200,000 from his brother on March 1, 2018, the same day that James Biden received an identical $200,000 payment from Americore.
The now-president was present for a phone call that his brother made during his work with Americore, according to an earlier Politico report, which produced other instances of James Biden leveraging the family name in his dealings with the hospital chain.
The president witnessed a phone call that his brother made during his work with Americore, according to an earlier Politico report. AP
George Mesires, an attorney who represented both James and Hunter Biden in their business deals abroad, also apparently represented Lewitt in some of the transactions being looked at by the feds, according to Politico. He did not respond to the outlet’s request for comment.
The first brother told Congress that the money, in the form of a check with a memo line marked “loan repayment,” was forwarded to pay Joe Biden back for a wire transfer of $200,000 from the former vice president’s corporate bank account.
Along with a $40,000 payment to Joe Biden in September 2017, the March 2018 transfer was unearthed as part of a House impeachment inquiry into the president that has scrutinized bank records and witnesses for evidence of the first family’s influence-peddling and foreign business deals.
“The House Oversight Committee will continue to investigate President Biden’s abuse of public office and his family’s corrupt schemes to cash in on the Biden name,” said Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.). AP
“Business dealings and financial transactions involving James and Hunter Biden have been investigated by the Justice Department, FBI, IRS, and SEC,” House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) told The Post.
“Nothing about the Biden family ‘business’ is normal. The House Oversight Committee will continue to investigate President Biden’s abuse of public office and his family’s corrupt schemes to cash in on the Biden name.”
The House Judiciary Committee, which along with the Oversight and Ways and Means Committees is conducting the impeachment investigation, requested Lewitt to sit for a transcribed interview last December.
“We are in communication with his attorney about scheduling a time for him to appear,” a spokeswoman for the Oversight Committee told The Post Tuesday.
In his deposition before the House Oversight Committee, James Biden said he ended up having to repay Americore $350,000 following its bankruptcy, leaving him with just $250,000 for his services.
Initially made as a loan, the amount was paid for entirely by a mysterious third party, despite the first brother telling Congress the money was “forgiven by Michael Lewitt.”
As part of an earlier dispute in 2019, a plaintiff who sued James Biden and some of his associates received a package containing Middle Eastern currency with apparent blood on it and a message that mentioned “torture,” the Knoxville News Sentinel previously reported.
That case, brought by two Tennessee health care companies, accused the first brother and his associates of perpetrating a “classic fraudulent bait-and-switch” to bankrupt them and steal their business model by holding out the prospect of foreign investment that never arrived.
The case settled for an undisclosed amount.
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