The former CEO of Burisma Holdings told an FBI confidential source that he was “coerced” into paying Joe and Hunter Biden $5 million apiece “so everything will be okay,” according to the newly released FD-1023 FBI file detailing the bribery scheme.
According to the document, the trusted confidential human source (CHS) told the FBI that then-Burisma CEO Mykola Zlochevsky stated he has records showing he made the payments to the Bidens in exchange for the firing of the State prosecutor investigating his company.
House Oversight members viewed the document in a SCIF on Capitol Hill on June 5, but Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) released the four-page document on Thursday so the American people could see the Bidens’ bribery “shenanigans” for themselves.
🚨 I’ve released the 1023 I’ve been working on getting from the FBI for a yr. Now u can read it for yourself thx to patriotic whistleblowers pic.twitter.com/ooGYR7fU02
— Chuck Grassley (@ChuckGrassley) July 20, 2023
The CHS was first introduced to Zlochevsky during the Obama administration in late 2015 or 2016, according to the document.
The CHS alleged that the Bidens pressured Zlochevsky to retain Hunter on Burisma’s board, which he did, despite believing that “Hunter was stupid and his [Zlochevsky’s] dog was smarter.”
During a meeting at Burisma’s office, Zlochevsky told the CHS that he needed to hire Hunter “to protect us through his dad from all kinds of problems,” according to the form.
At the time, Viktor Shokin, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine was investigating Burisma over allegations of money laundering, tax evasion, and corruption.
According to the FBI file, the CHS told Zlochevsky that the investigation would have “a substantial negative impact” on Burisma’s plan to purchase a U.S.-based oil and gas company for $20 to $30 million. Zlochevsky, according to the CHS, said “something to the effect of ‘don’t worry, Hunter will take care of all those issues through his dad.'”
According to the form, “CHS inquired whether Hunter Biden or Joe Biden told Zlochevsky he should retain Hunter Biden; Zlochevsky replied, ‘They both did.’ CHS reiterated CHS’s opinion that Zlochevsky was making a mistake and he should fire Hunter Biden and deal with Shokin’s investigation directly so that the matter will remain an issue in Ukraine, and not turn into some international matter. Zlochevsky responded something to the effect of, ‘Don’t worry, this thing will go away anyway.’”
The CHS took this as meaning that “Zlochevsky had already paid the Bidens, presumably, to deal with Shokin.”
Joe Biden in 2016 made a public statement declaring that Shokin was corrupt and should be fired.
In now infamous remarks during foreign policy panel discussion in January of 2018, Biden bragged that when he was vice president, he successfully pressured Ukraine to fire Shokin by threatening to withhold $1 billion of critical U.S. aid if Shokin was not fired. “Well, son of a bitch,” Biden crowed. “He got fired!”
In a telephone call after the 2016 election, the CHS asked Zlochevsky if he was worried about Burisma’s involvement with the Bidens since Donald Trump won. Zlochevsky said he was not happy Trump was elected and said he had been “pushed to pay them.” The source explained that the Burisma exec had used the term poluchili, which is Russian criminal slang for “forced or coerced to pay.”
He told the CHS that he had many text messages and audio recordings of phone calls between him and the Bidens to support his claim, including 15 audio recordings of phone calls between him and Hunter, and two recordings between him and then-VP Joe Biden.
In 2019, after congressional Republicans had started investigating the Biden clan’s influence peddling operations, Zlochevsky and the CHS spoke again by telephone, according to the form. The CHS said he told Zlochevsky that he might have trouble explaining any suspicious wire transfers to the Bidens that could be used as evidence of illicit payments to them.
Zlochevsky assured the CHS that he had not sent any payments directly to “the Big Guy” (which the CHS understood referred to Joe Biden). The former Burisma exec also said it would take investigators ten years to unravel where all the payments went.
CHS reiterated that the audio recordings of Zlochevsky’s conversations with Joe and Hunter Biden contain evidence that “Zlochevsky was somehow coerced into paying the Bidens to ensure Ukraine Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin was fired,” according to the file.
“Zlochevsky stated he has two documents (which CHS understood to be wire transfer statements, bank records, etc.), that evidence some payment(s) to the Bidens were made, presumably in exchange for Shokin’s firing.”
In June of 2020, Ukrainian officials seized a $6 million cash bribe linked to Zlochevsky, aimed at stopping a probe into an embezzlement plot, the New York Post reported at the time.
Millions in American $100 bills were reportedly put on display, wrapped in rubber bands and held in clear plastic bags. The bribe was was intended as a payoff to two top anti-corruption officials. That bribery case had no connection to the Bidens, according to Ukrainian investigators.
According to Ukrainian authorities, Zlochevsky is also suspected of “theft of government funds on an especially large scale” and a criminal investigation on suspicion of embezzlement was put on hold because Zlochevsky’s whereabouts could not be determined.
Last month, Joe Biden dismissed reports of the FD-1023 file indicating that both he and Hunter Biden pocketed $5 million from Zlochevsky, calling the allegations “a bunch of malarkey.”
Update:
The FBI were able to corroborate some parts of the informant’s allegations, a source close to the investigation told DailyMail.com.
Pittsburgh investigators were allegedly able to corroborate some of the informant’s claims back in 2020 – though they couldn’t subpoena documents to dig further because of the limited nature of their probe.
‘There were multiple meetings alleged overseas. Some of the CHS’s claims were corroborated against the CHS travel records, and contemporary knowledge from the handler about him attending meetings with Zlochevsky and other people present,’ the law enforcement source said.
This @DailyMailUK article contains some pretty remarkable details about how the famous Biden bribery FD-1023 came about and was partially corroborated by the FBI… https://t.co/FAP0vFI6OD
— Tristan Leavitt (@tristanleavitt) July 21, 2023
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