by Steven Richards
Court documents from the New York trial of Patrick Ho continue to shed light on who Hunter Biden was dealing with when he entered into business with CEFC, a Chinese energy conglomerate founded by Ye Jianming that would give millions to Hunter Biden and the Biden family.
Transcripts from Ho’s trial show that Zang Jianjun, the person Ho (pictured above) described as the number two executive at CEFC China Energy was present when the company offered bribes to African officials in pursuit of special oil privileges. Ho was sentenced to three years in federal prison after his conviction, yet, Zang was not charged in the case brought against Ho in the United States.
Just the News previously reported on the criminal activity of Patrick Ho of CEFC, including his bribery scheme to secure special energy privileges for the energy company in Africa and efforts to violate Iran sanctions and secure illicit arms deals. But a deeper look at the court documents from Ho’s trial shows that criminal activity extended to other CEFC officials associated closely with Hunter Biden.
CEFC executive Zang Jianjun is the same official Hunter Biden mentioned in a text message to another CEFC official when he invoked his father’s name in order to secure his business relationship with the Chinese company, according to records obtained by the House Oversight Committee as part of its impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.
During Ho’s trial, Cheikh Gadio, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Senegal, testified about the meetings that Patrick Ho and the CEFC delegation had with the President of Chad, Idriss Déby during which the bribes from CEFC were paid. Gadio was the connection who Ho exploited in order to meet with the President of Chad in an attempt to secure favorable oil rights in the African country, according to the Department of Justice.
During a meeting with Chadian President Déby the CEFC delegation presented the African leader with $2 million in cash concealed in gift boxes, according to the DOJ. The president rejected the money, but later accepted it as a “charitable donation” to his country.
In transcripts of his testimony at Ho’s trial, Gadio described that meeting and the CEFC delegation that presented the “gift” to the Chadian president.
“In December 2014, I was in Chad with the delegation of CEFC and the president of Chad, and gift — gift box were given to the president of Chad, were delivered to him. I learned afterwards that they contained $2 million in cash. And — and I did not walk away,” Gadio testified at Ho’s trial.
“Who presented those gift boxes to the president?” Gadio was asked. “The CEFC delegation,” he responded, identifying “Dr. Patrick Ho, Mr. Zhang [sic], [and] Dr. Lo, the translator,” as members of the delegation.
Gadio added in later testimony that Patrick Ho told him that Zang was an important official in CEFC. “Dr. Ho told me several times that Mr. Zang was a key element in the CEFC, you know, power structure. He told me that he’s running their Beijing office and he can be even considered like the No. 2 guy in the organization,” Gadio said, according to another court transcript.
By May of 2015, Zang had become the primary CEFC official responsible for the deal in Chad, according to Gadio, supplanting Ho as his primary point of contact.
As one of the senior officials at CEFC, Zang and his associates worked closely with Hunter Biden. This partnership netted Hunter Biden over $5 million through various channels, according to the now-defunct plea agreement that the younger Biden was set to sign with the Justice Department. One of the main vehicles of Biden’s enrichment from CEFC was Hudson West III, a joint venture that CEFC was slated to use to invest in the U.S. energy market.
In July 2017, Hunter Biden directly threatened a CEFC official—Raymond Zhao—demanding that the company live up to its commitment to his family and told his associate that he was awaiting a call from director Zang or chairman Ye.
“Z- Please have the director call me- not James or Tony or Jim- have him call me tonight. I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. I am very concerned that the Chairman has either changed his mind and broken our deal without telling me or that he is unaware of the promises and assurances that have been made have not been kept,” Hunter Biden wrote to Zhao, according to the House Oversight Committee.
“Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand. And now means tonight. And Z if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang or the Chairman I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction,” Hunter continued, invoking his father.
Zang’s name also appears repeatedly in Hunter Biden’s emails concerning efforts to close the deal in summer of 2017. One example can be read.
While Hunter Biden worked to seal his partnership with CEFC, the energy company was actively negotiating the purchase of a stake in the Russian state-owned oil company, Rosneft. The same month as Hunter Biden’s threatening messages, CEFC’s Zang attended a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Moscow in part to facilitate this purchase, according to Tony Bobulinski’s interview with the FBI, provided to Congress by IRS whistleblowers. At the time of the exchange, Bobulinski was a partner of Hunter Biden’s.
In November 2017, Patrick Ho was arrested in New York on charges of money laundering and bribery. During Ho’s trial, prosecutors unveiled a “multi-year, multimillion-dollar scheme to bribe top officials of Chad and Uganda in exchange for business advantages for CEFC China Energy Company Limited,” according to the Department of Justice. Zang was not mentioned in the indictment. Neither was the role of any of the other CEFC officials who attended the meeting with the Chadian president.
The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York could not be reached for comment about Zang’s absence from the indictment.
Shortly before Ho’s arrest, Hunter Biden signed on as “Counsel to matters related to US law and advice pertaining to the hiring and legal analysis of any US Law Firm or Lawyer” in September 2017, according to an attorney engagement letter released by the House Ways and Means Committee.
“The legal services to be provided by Attorney to Client are as follows: Counsel to matters related to US law and advice pertaining to the hiring and legal analysis of any US Law Firm or Lawyer,” the agreement between Hunter Biden and CEFC reads.
For his legal services, Hunter Biden was paid $1 million against which Hunter Biden could deduct his attorney’s fees, according to the agreement.
The younger Biden was also in communication with several CEFC official at this time, making it possible that his communications were ensnared in the FISA surveillance of Patrick Ho.
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Steven Richards joined Just the News in August 2023 after previously working as a Research Analyst for the Government Accountability Institute (GAI) in Tallahassee, Florida.
Photo “Patrick Ho” by SUNREST. CC BY-SA 4.0.
