Joe Biden’s younger brother, James, allegedly leveraged the former vice president’s signature cancer initiative to further his own business interests.
James Biden, who has a history of murky financial dealings, allegedly promised a Florida-based dental company, Integrate Oral Care, that the Biden Cancer Initiative “would promote their business.” The promise came in November 2018 as James Biden and his business partners were weighing an investment in the company, according to Politico.
“James Biden told the Integrate executives that he would get the Biden Cancer Initiative to promote an oral rinse made by the firm and used by cancer patients,” the outlet noted.
The revelation comes after Integrate filed a suit against James Biden and Platinum Global Partners in June, claiming they never followed through on a promise to investment $3 million into the company. The suit is similar to one filed in Tennessee against James Biden in which the former vice president’s brother is accused of defrauding a rural healthcare company.
Unlike the Tennessee suit, however, the Integrate suit marks the first mention of the Biden Cancer Initiative — a non-profit set up by the former vice president after leaving the White House. In June, the organization, which did not fund cancer research but rather convened major institutions to work on the issue, suspended its operations indefinitely after questions were raised about the influence its donors would have on Biden were he to be elected president in 2020.
James Biden is not the only member of the former vice president’s immediate family to draw scrutiny for his business dealings.
Hunter Biden, the former vice president’s youngest son, is at the center of controversy after President Donald Trump suggested the Ukrainian government look into his business dealings in the country. In particular, there are serious questions over how Hunter was able to secure a seat on the board of directors of Ukraine’s largest independent oil and gas company — Bursiam Holdings — in 2014. Hunter secured the position, which reportedly paid as much as $83,000 per month, despite no prior background in Ukraine or the energy industry.
Ethics watchdogs have highlighted the fact that a month prior to the appointment, Joe Biden was tapped as the Obama administration’s point man on Ukraine in the wake of Russia’s annexation of Crimea. At the same time, Burisma was attempting to court western leaders , even going to the extent of hiring a Washington, D.C. lobbyist with ties to then-Secretary of State John Kerry, after its assets had been frozen in the United Kingdom on suspicion of money laundering.
It was this tie and the subsequent pressure Joe Biden placed on the Ukrainian government to fire the prosecutor investigating the company for corruption in 2016, that Trump believes should be probed in Ukraine.