A photo has emerged which shows former Vice President Joe Biden posing with Kenes Rakishev, an oligarch from Kazakhstan. This oligarch reportedly “explored business” with Hunter Biden.
Joe Biden has previously declared: “I have never discussed, with my son or my brother or with anyone else, anything having to do with their businesses. Period.” From all of the recent information unearthed about Biden’s son, Hunter, this statement may have been a blatant lie.
The Picture
The photo was first published last year on the Kazhakhstani Initiative on Asset Recovery (KIAR), an anti-corruption website. In the photo, Joe and Hunter Biden are standing with Kazakhstan’s former prime minister, Karim Massimov, on the right. On the left side of the photo is Kenes Rakishev, described as “a relative and junior partner of [oligarch] Timur Kulibayev.”
Rakishev’s personal website identifies him as an “international businessman, investor and entrepreneur.” The website also adds that he is “regarded as one of the most influential businessmen in Kazakhstan,” with “business interests spanning technology, oil & gas, finance, shipbuilding, and metals & mining industries.”
According to the UK Daily Mail, “Between 2012 and 2014, Hunter worked as a sort of go-between for Kenes Rakishev, a self-styled ‘international businessman, investor and entrepreneur’ with close family connections to the kleptocratic regime of his homeland’s despotic former president Nursultan Nazarbayev.”
Emails given to the Daily Mail from “anti-corruption campaigners” show that Hunter Biden “held extensive meetings with Rakishev, who was looking to invest a portion of his personal fortune in New York and Washington DC.”
Hunter also reportedly traveled to Astana (now renamed Nur-Sultan), the capital of Kazakhstan, for business discussions.
According to the Daily Mail, “Hunter Biden then attempted to persuade Rakishev to buy into a Nevadan mining company, brokering a series of meetings with the firm, before convincing him to invest a cool million dollars with Alexandra Forbes Kerry, the film-maker daughter of Democrat Senator and former Presidential candidate John Kerry.”
Reportedly, Hunter Biden and Rakishev became close friends, and “dined together at luxury restaurants in New York and Washington DC.”
Corruption
Rakishev was named in a recent Senate report about Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings. The report noted that the oligarch gave Devon Archer, Hunter’s business partner, $142,300 for a car:
“Archer received $142,300 from Kenges Rakishev of Kazakhstan, purportedly for a car, the same day [in 2014] Vice President Joe Biden appeared with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arsemy Yasenyuk and addressed Ukrainian legislators in Kyiv regarding Russia’s actions in Crimea.”
Peter Schweizer, political consultant and writer, reported in his 2019 book, “Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends,” that the account that the “car” funds were paid into was “controlled by Archer and received large sums of money from foreign entities.”
That account received funds from Ukrainian energy firm Burisma Holdings, the Chinese company Bohai Harvest RST, and from Rakishev’s company Novatus Holdings, according to court documents cited by Schweizer.
Matthew Tyrmand, an investigative journalist, gave Breitbart News an email from 2014 in which Devon Archer mentioned that he would be hosting Kazakhstan’s “Secretary of State” in Washington, DC.
Reportedly, Tyrmand received the email from Bevan Cooney, who is currently serving time in a federal prison for a bond fraud scheme. Cooney is a former business partner of Hunter Biden and Devon Archer.
Breitbart News reported last week: “Cooney … believes he was the ‘fall guy’ for the fraud scheme and that Archer and Hunter Biden had avoided responsibility.”
Breitbart also mentioned that “Archer’s conviction had been vacated, but was recently reinstated, and he is currently awaiting sentencing.”
Café Milano
The photograph of the Bidens with Rakishev and Massimov appears to have been taken at Café Milano in Washington, D.C. The iconic restaurant’s logo appears on the drapes in the background (backwards in the photo). The date of the photograph is unknown.
The picture of Joe and Hunter Biden with Rakishev and Massimov was reportedly taken at Café Milano in Washington, D.C. Joe Biden is known to frequent the restaurant:
Spotted: VP Joe Biden & Mayor Michael Bloomberg tête-à-tête dinner at Cafe Milano. It was Friday night but still worth a mention.
— Carol Ross Joynt (@caroljoynt) January 30, 2013
Many members of the political elite are known to eat at Café Milano, perhaps because of the restaurants’ clientele. The Washingtonian reported in 2013: “Vice President Joe Biden and his wife are regulars … Cafe Milano has the distinction in Washington of handling high-profile visits with aplomb. On any given night, there might be some dignitary with security in the room.”
Café Milano was also the target of a foiled Iranian terror plot, which was aimed at the Saudi ambassador, who reportedly also ate there often.
