There is more proof that a financial relationship exists between President Biden's son Hunter, the president's brother James and a Chinese company. The profile of a big-time international fixer was not that of Patrick Ho. A short, pudgy man, affectionately known to friends as Fat Ping, Ho had been a Harvard-trained ophthalmologist and a Hong Kong government minister. He was arrested by FBI agents at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City in the fall of 2017: he was charged in an audacious plot to dole out millions of dollars in bribes to African leaders in exchange for major energy contracts that appeared to advance Chinese government interests. A revealing portrait of Chinese influence peddling that included allegations that Ho arranged to broker arms deals for countries in war zones in Africa and the Middle was revealed in his indictment and later trial and conviction. In federal court documents or Justice Department press releases at the time, there was one noteworthy detail about Ho's global wheeling and dealing. Ho and his boss, a billionaire oil tycoon with ties to a front for the People's Liberation Army, had entered into a business relationship while he was being pursued by the FBI. When Ho was arrested at JFK, the first call he made was to James Biden. The president's brother told the New York Times that the call was intended for his nephew. It was unclear at the time if Ho was connected to the Bidens. Emails from a damaged laptop that Hunter Biden left at a computer repair store have since been verified by the Washington Post and the Times. George Mesires, a lawyer for both Hunter and James Biden, did not respond to requests for comment from Yahoo News. A lawyer for Ho didn't say anything. The documents show that a Chinese firm founded by Ye and whose nonprofit wing was run by Ho paid $4.8 million to an investment vehicle controlled by Hunter Biden. According to bank records and a report, Hunter Biden's firm transferred over a million dollars to James Biden's consulting firm. Hunter Biden, who is a lawyer, signed a retainer agreement to represent Ho just two months before his arrest, according to emails found on his laptop and verified by the Washington Post. The bank records show $1 million was paid to Biden in March of last year, but it is not clear what work he did for Ho. The records of Ho's criminal case show no indication that Biden or his law firm participated in his legal defense. Yahoo News asked the Bidens' lawyer what work Hunter Biden did for the $1 million retainer and what work James Biden did for his consulting firm. He didn't reply. Hunter Biden may have had reason to suspect the Chinese intelligence connections of Ho and Ye. Hunter Biden complained about getting a phone call from a New York Times reporter asking about his representation of Ho, after an audio recording of a conversation with an unidentified woman was found on a laptop. Biden says that he is the spy chief of China, clearly overstating his role. It is not clear why the conversation was on the laptop. In the same conversation, Biden talked about the calls he had gotten from his father. He complains that Ye, the richest man in the world, went missing in China and he couldn't get in touch with him. Ye, who ran afoul of the Chinese President, has not been heard from since. There are no incriminating details about President Biden's dealings with Chinese interests. There are new questions as to whether the Bidens were targets of a Chinese influence operation that was separate and apart from an ongoing criminal probe into Hunter Biden for alleged tax fraud and potentially foreign lobbying violations. Frank Figliuzzi, former chief of the FBI's counterintelligence division, said that Chinese intelligence services look for every opportunity to get close to family members of high-ranking officials. Figliuzzi had doubts about stories in conservative media about Hunter Biden. The counterintelligence arm of the FBI should review the information we have learned, he says. A former senior FBI official, who asked not to be identified by name, said that Hunter presents CIcounter intelligence vulnerabilities. During the Trump years, the issues received less scrutiny because he used his power as president to bolster his own business interests. The former official said that some questions about Hunter have been covered less rigorously than they should have been. Many more people would be howling if Trump's children were doing the same things. Chinese influence schemes in the U.S. go back decades. In the 1990s, a campaign finance scandal known as Chinagate erupted over illegal donations by Chinese backers of the Democratic National Committee and Bill Clinton's 1996 reelection campaign. The FBI gave both Feinstein and Swalwell a defensive briefing after they were warned about the Chinese agents. Swalwell cut his ties to the suspected Chinese agent who was raising money for his campaign. Neil Bush is the son of former President George H.W. Bush and the brother of former President George W. Bush. A full picture of the Chinese business ties of the Bidens has only emerged in fits and starts, with much that is still unknown. Although many of the details have been circulating in conservative media circles for a while, they were largely ignored by mainstream news organizations because they initially surfaced on a laptop that Rudy Giuliani, Trump's lawyer who is prone to defamation, used. The Russian hack-and-dump campaign that targeted Hillary Clinton was the subject of a statement released by 51 former US intelligence officials. Hunter Biden's efforts to do business in China and his willingness to use his proximity to his father to further those deals had been public for some time. Hunter Biden was with his father, then the vice president, on a trip to Beijing. The younger Biden met with Jonathan Li, a Chinese banker, just hours after his father had spent five-and-a-half hours with the Chinese leader. The Chinese business license for the firm was issued 10 days after the trip and Hunter Biden was named a member of the board, according to NBC reporter Jonathan Lederman. What happened to that venture and how much it netted Hunter Biden is not known. Hunter Biden formed new ventures with problematic partners as his father was starting to plan his campaign for president. According to an account in the New Yorker, he met with Ye, the chief of CEFC, for dinner in Miami and discussed a $40 million investment in a liquified natural gas venture in Louisiana. The younger Biden was asked to assist in his defense after Ye told him that his deputy, Ho, was under criminal investigation by federal prosecutors in New York. The FBI was intensifying its pursuit of Ho as those relationships solidified. According to court documents, the FBI can only get a warrant to spy on a target if they are suspected of being an agent of a foreign power or a terrorist organization. The case that prosecutors brought against Ho centered on the fact that he used the China Energy Fund Committee to bribe senior African officials in order to win oil contracts. The Chinese government did not accuse Ho of acting on their behalf. When it comes to Beijing's influence operations, the line between businessmen and agents of the state can be thin, according to former U.S. intelligence officials. Ho's defense lawyers argued that his actions were in furtherance of the Chinese state's agenda, by promoting the Belt and Road initiative. Evidence of other misdeeds was also presented by prosecutors. They charged that he tried to facilitate a sanctions-busting scheme on behalf of Iran, by trying to get an Iranian agent to wash frozen Iranian funds so Tehran could covertly purchase precious metals. He sought to leverage his connections and power by brokering arms deals, including the sale of mortar rounds and rocket, anti-tank and grenade launchers to Libya. Douglas Zolkind, an assistant U.S. attorney, said during the former Hong Kong minister's trial that his actions were corrupt and criminal. 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