Corruption


Ukraine Likely to Reopen Probe of Hunter Biden Firm: Sources


The Daily Beast has learned from an influential member of Ukraine’s parliament, from one of the country’s prosecutors, and from a center combating corruption that the government here is likely to pursue the cases that President Donald Trump urged on President Volodymyr Zelensky in a controversial phone call last July. But not the way Trump intends, and not necessarily to the detriment of Trump challenger Joe Biden.

The investigations and possible prosecutions, if they happen, would take place in the context of a new law signed by Zelensky just before his departure for the United Nations General Assembly in New York, where he is expected to meet face to face with Trump for the first time.

In Kyiv, there are widespread hopes that the reforms will help Zelensky, a former comedian who played a corruption-fighting president on television, deliver on his campaign promise to clean up Ukraine for real. A new team of independent prosecutors is supposed to re-open investigations of past cases and answer questions about the corruption in post-revolutionary Ukraine over the last five years.

During much of that time, investigations were launched against various powerful oligarchs, then quietly shut down when, it was widely assumed, the prosecutors were paid off. As a result it has been hard to know if the investigations were justified or merely launched for purposes of extortion.

The Biden-Clinton Method

...The absence of any applicable laws obviously makes for a nice operating environment for Americans who carry well-known political brand names and show up to do “business” in a foreign locale. The environment seems particularly welcoming if the father of such an American happens to be the sitting Vice President of the United States and has been specifically tasked with leading U.S. policy in the foreign locale.

But of course the absence of any applicable laws has a downside. Beyond the particulars of any Clinton or Biden work overseas, there is an ongoing challenge posed by the lack of foreign cooperation in applying the strict standards applied to businesses in the United States.