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By Paul Sperry for RealClear Investigations
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is not alone in demanding more military assistance from President Biden to protect Kiev from Russian forces. He is also a close friend and financial backer of Biden, who owns several luxury car dealerships in the Ukrainian capital.
By sending billions of dollars in weapons and other military aid to help defend Ukraine, Biden is also securing the investments of auto magnate John Hynansky, a Ukrainian-American and longtime supporter of the president.
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Throughout Biden’s political career, Hynansky and his family have contributed more than $100,000 to his campaigns, Federal Election Commission records show. Members of the Hynansky family have been guests at the White House, and Hynansky has provided hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans to members of the Biden family, property records show. Hynansky’s son, Michael, who helps run his car empire, lent the use of his Lear jet to Biden when he was a senator.
Since Russia began shelling the area around Kiev in February 2022, the US government has spent $77 billion to help Ukraine rebuild and repel future attacks.
Government ethics watchdogs say the president’s friendship raises a potential conflict of interest that calls for full accountability for how massive foreign aid, including unlimited humanitarian and economic assistance, has been used and who has benefited from it. she. On the military side, in addition, billions of dollars have been allocated to unspecified areas, such as “security”, “intelligence” and “training”. In the past, Hynansky has supplied police cars and ambulances in various regions of Ukraine.
The Biden administration helped Hynansky’s Ukraine team prepare for the invasion, including placing calls to his top executive in Kiev 13 days before Russian tanks rolled across the border. He has sent billions of dollars to help rebuild war-torn cities where Hynansky operates most of the country’s auto showrooms and service centers specializing in Porsches, Jaguars, Land Rover and Bentleys, among others. non-US brands that matter.
The president’s close relationship with Hynansky illustrates broader ethical issues that have long surrounded Biden and his family members, who often have financial interests directly affected by the policies he endorses. While serving as President Obama’s Ukraine point man in 2015, Biden demanded the firing of a prosecutor investigating a natural gas company, Burisma, that paid his son Hunter $80,000 a month to serve on its board of directors. .
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The connection between Joe Biden and Hynansky’s business dates back to 2009, when the then vice president made his first visit to Ukraine. In a speech in kyiv to government officials, Biden praised Hynansky, noting that he had just had breakfast with “my very good friend, John Hynansky.” (The previous year, Hynansky had contributed more than $33,000 to the Obama-Biden ticket primarily through the Obama Victory Fund, according to FEC records.)
Within months of hobnobbing with the vice president and local officials in the Ukrainian capital, Hynansky secured his first international development loan from the US Overseas Private Investment Corporation, or OPIC, a federal agency whose board was named by President Obama. Hynansky used the $2.5 million to break ground on a massive new headquarters and distribution center outside Kiev that prepares 8,000 cars for sale each year. In 2012, Hynansky secured another $20 million in OPIC funding to expand his dealership facility, federal records show, helping him capture roughly 25% of the luxury car market in Ukraine.
Hynansky has political connections in both kyiv and Washington. President Zelensky also calls Hynansky a good friend and has given him state awards in recent years. kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko is also close to the prominent Wilmington businessman.
In August 2021, Hynansky secured a $24 million loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to expand its Ukraine operations into electric vehicles, including building new Renault and Volvo dealerships in Lviv. The United States is a founding member of the EBRD and provides 10% of its capital. The Biden administration has been pushing for these types of “green” deals. “In the near future, we intend to increase our presence in the Ukrainian market,” Hynansky’s top Ukraine official Petro Rondiak said at the time.
The White House did not respond to inquiries about the president’s relationship with Hynansky.
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Although Biden is silent about his actions in Ukraine, as they refer to Hynansky and his dealings there, he has repeatedly denied that his son’s Burisma dealings influenced his official actions in Ukraine, which included handing over more than $50. million in US support to help Ukrainian energy. industry, a relief package Biden personally announced in kyiv a month before Burisma hired her son in 2014.
Republicans are investigating whether those funds were intended to help his son’s business interests in Ukraine. Less explored is whether US tax money has also been used to protect or boost Hynansky’s Ukrainian investments.
Paul Kamenar, an attorney with the National Law and Policy Center, a Washington watchdog group. He said that by dealing with Ukraine, Biden is raising suspicions that he may be putting his own political fortunes before the national interest.
This article was adapted from a RealClearInvestigations article published on April 26.
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