Documents filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California spell out how Special Counsel David Weiss will bring up work done by Hunter Biden in 2015 for Gabriel Popoviciu, one of Romania’s wealthiest businessmen.
In a filing ahead of a planned Aug. 21 hearing, prosecutors noted Biden “entered into an oral agreement with Business Associate 1 purportedly to help a Romanian businessperson, G.P., contest bribery charges he was facing in Romania.”
The documents don’t name Popoviciu directly, but GP are his initials and the details about the unidentified business associate match the information about Biden’s business dealings discussed in a U.S. congressional investigation.
“G.P. was a Romanian businessman who was under criminal investigation in Romania,” the filing noted, referencing an eventual corruption conviction in Romania. “G.P. sought to retain Business Associate 1, the defendant, and Business Associate 2, to attempt to influence U.S. government agencies to investigate the Romanian criminal investigation of G.P, and thereby cause an end to the investigation of G.P. in Romania.”
Concerned that the efforts might reflect poorly on then-Vice President Joe Biden, prosecutors said, the younger Biden and associates structured their work to look like real-estate management services in Romania. Some of that money flowed back to Biden but was not properly reflected on his tax filings, they allege.
Prosecutors said in a footnote that they’d filed under seal testimony from Business Associate 1 and that they may reference this testimony during a trial expected to begin in September.
Business Associate 1’s entity received more than US$3.1 million from Popoviciu for the allegedly hidden lobbying services, they said, a third of which flowed to the younger Biden.
Prosecutors said entering this information into the tax-fraud trial is important because it establishes that Biden received income from Business Associate 1 during the tax year in question.
“Moreover, the evidence of what the defendant agreed to do and did do for G.P. demonstrates the defendant’s state of mind and intent during the relevant tax years charged in the indictment,” they said.
That’s important because Biden’s defense team has argued he had spiraled into drug and alcohol addiction that clouded his judgment. Prosecutors are trying to counter that Biden did not have “diminished capacity” when he disguised work that was politically sensitive and reached out to the State Department.
Biden was indicted in December 2023 on charges he underreported income and stopped paying taxes owed over a period from 2016 to 2019. Prosecutors said they are not alleging he funneled any money to his father, who was a sitting vice president at the time of the work for Popoviciu.
Popoviciu is not expected to testify. Previous reporting by OCCRP and others showed he grew wealthy in part by winning state land contracts and owned pricey property in New York and elsewhere. Sentenced by Romania to seven years in prison in 2017 after being convicted of real estate fraud, Popoviciu has denied wrongdoing.
