Burisma CEO Told Informant He Was ‘Coerced’ Into Paying Bidens $10 Million Bribe
Based on unclassified FBI documents released by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) on Thursday, it is alleged that then-Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden allegedly coerced Burisma co-founder and CEO Mykola Zlochevsky into paying them millions of dollars.
This payment was supposedly in exchange for pressuring the Ukrainian government to remove prosecutor Viktor Shokin, who was investigating Burisma for corruption.
According to the redacted FD-1023 form released by Grassley, Zlochevsky reportedly informed the FBI's confidential human source (CHS) during a meeting in August 2016 that he had paid $5 million to one Biden and $5 million to another Biden.
Joe Biden's involvement in the matter can be inferred from his public statement where he admitted to using a $1 billion loan from the Obama Administration as leverage to pressure then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to fire Shokin.
Biden claimed that he wanted action taken against the state prosecutor, and when the Ukrainian government did not comply, he threatened to withhold the billion-dollar loan guarantee, leading to Shokin's dismissal.
Recently, it was revealed that there are reportedly 17 recordings of Mykola Zlochevsky's interactions with the Bidens, providing evidence of their alleged coercion to receive $5 million each in exchange for the removal of Ukraine's Prosecutor General, Viktor Shokin.
The CHS in this case is said to be a long-time FBI informant who has received around $200,000 in compensation from the bureau.
Biden defended his actions, stating that they were in line with the official policy of the Obama administration to combat corruption in Ukraine. However, it is argued that the loan was already approved by Congress in 2014, and the executive branch was not permitted to impose further conditions on such appropriations, as ruled by the GAO.
