Paying Hunter Biden to sit on the Burisma board of directors is illegal according to Ukraine tax code and cannot be recognised as a legitimate expenditure, according to former Ukraine Presidential candidate Oleg Tsarev.
Israel Shamir interviewed Tsarev for the Unz Review in 2019.
“Oleg, you followed the Biden story from its very inception. Biden is not the only Dem politician involved in the Ukrainian corruption schemes, is he?”
“Indeed, John Kerry, the Secretary of State in Obama's administration, was his partner in crime. But Joe Biden was number one. During the Obama presidency, Biden was the US proconsul for Ukraine, and he was involved in many corruption schemes. He authorised transfer of three billion dollars of US taxpayer money to the post-coup government of the Ukraine.”
“The money was stolen. Biden took a big share of the spoils.”
This is a story of ripping off both the US taxpayer and the Ukrainian customer for the benefit of a few corrupt insiders.
The Price of Gas
The price of gas in the Ukraine went from zero to unaffordable under the years of the Bidens.
Before the Bidens, energy for cooking and heating was free for Ukraine households.
"The Ukraine has a few midsize deposits of natural gas, sufficient for domestic household consumption. The cost of its production was quite low, and the Ukrainians got used to paying pennies for their gas. Actually, it was so cheap to produce that the Ukraine could provide all its households with free gas for heating and cooking, just like Libya did. Despite low consumer prices, the gas companies (like Burisma) had very high profits and very little expenditure."
After the 2014 coup, the IMF demanded to raise the price of gas for the domestic consumer to European levels, and the new president Petro Poroshenko obliged them. Prices went sky-high. The Ukrainians were forced to pay many times more for their cooking and heating, and huge profits went into the coffers of the gas companies. Instead of raising taxes or lowering prices, Poroshenko demanded the gas companies pay him or subsidise his own projects. He told them that he’d arranged the price hike and therefore he should be considered their partner.
The reason Poroshenko asked his AG to investigate Burisma wasn't for the corruption. The reason was Poroshenko wanted a bigger piece of the pie for himself.
Burisma had to pay extortion money to Poroshenko. Eventually founder and owner Zlochevsky decided to invite VIP westerners into the company's board of directors, hoping it would moderate Poroshenko's appetites. He brought in Biden's son Hunter, John Kerry, Polish ex-President Kwasniewski, but it didn't help him.
“Poroshenko became furious that the fattened calf may escape him, and asked attorney general Shokin to investigate Burisma, trusting some irregularities would emerge. AG Shokin immediately discovered that Burisma had paid these 'stars' between 50 and 150 thousand dollars per month each, just for being on the board of directors. This is illegal by Ukrainian tax code - it can't be recognised as legitimate expenditure.” - Oleg Tsarev
At that time, Biden the father entered the fray. He called Poroshenko and gave him six hours to close the case against his son. Otherwise he'd withhold one billion US taxpayer dollars.
Burisma's Zlochevsky paid Biden well for this. Biden received between three and ten million dollars, according to different sources.
“Talking about Burisma and Biden: what is this billion dollars of aid that Biden could give or withhold?”
"It is USAID money, the main channel of the US aid for 'support of democracy'. Th first billion dollars of USAID came to the Ukraine in 2014. This was authorised by Joe Biden, while for Ukraine, the papers were signed by Mr Turchinov, the 'acting President'. The Ukrainian constitution does not know of such a position, and Turchinov, 'the acting President', had no right to sign either a legal or a financial document. The documents that were signed by him had no legal force. But Biden still countersigned and allocated the money to Ukraine. The money was stolen - by the Democrats and their Ukrainian counterparts."
A comment at UNZ.
"These backstories, combined with the full court press by Democrats to unseat Trump, take on a broader, deeper, and alarming perspective. It suggests the intensity of the rally for impeachment is but a grand scheme of deflection to mask the magnitude of heinous crimes allegedly committed by Biden and a cadre of insider Democrats."
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