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An executive at an Israeli think tank who worked alongside Hunter Biden as an adviser to a Chinese energy conglomerate, which many suspect of serving as a front for the Chinese Communist Party, has claimed to have provided the FBI with significant information about the Biden family’s foreign business activities after his arrest in Cyprus earlier this month.
Gal Luft, who co-directs the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security in Washington, recently claimed that he provided the FBI with information regarding the foreign business deals of the Biden family, according to a report in the Washington Free Beacon on Monday.
Luft, who was arrested Feb. 16, served as an adviser to CEFC China Energy, a conglomerate that is widely believed to be linked to the Chinese Communist Party. The group paid Hunter Biden at least $6 million in 2017 to secure energy investment deals in the US, and it donated over $350,000 to Luft’s think tank. According to CNN, CEFC China Energy and the Chinese government were so closely aligned that it was often difficult to tell the two apart, the Free Beacon noted.
The outlet added:
Luft’s claims come as a former Hunter Biden business partner, Eric Schwerin, has started cooperating with the House Oversight Committee’s investigation of the Biden family’s foreign business dealings. Investigators have focused heavily on Hunter Biden’s work with CEFC China Energy. The Justice Department has investigated Hunter Biden since 2018 over his taxes and foreign business dealings, though the case appears to be focused on the first son’s unpaid taxes.
Luft’s threat to “name names” comes after his arrest in Cyprus on Feb. 16 on charges that he illegally sold weapons to Libya and China. Luft asserts that the United States is seeking his extradition as part of a “politically motivated” payback for his exposure of the Bidens.
“DOJ is trying to bury me to protect Joe, Jim & Hunter Biden,” Luft said in a Twitter post. An Israeli lawyer for Luft, meanwhile, has claimed in an Israeli outlet that his client gave information about Hunter Biden to the FBI in 2019.
Luft’s connection to CEFC China Energy, which is suspected of being closely linked to the Chinese government, lends credence to his claims. Additionally, an American lawyer representing Luft has indicated that he intends to offer information about Luft’s situation to Congress. Despite this, it is still unclear what specific information Luft has provided to the Justice Department or what potential implications it may have for the Biden family, the Free Beacon noted.
“Dr. Luft is a whistleblower,” Luft attorney Robert Henoch told the outlet, adding that he believes prosecutors decided against pursuing Luft’s information “and are instead targeting him with trumped-up and false charges.”
“This, unfortunately, appears to be part of an attempt to discredit a witness with critical information about an ongoing congressional and DOJ investigation,” Henoch suggested, according to the Free Beacon.
Luft also acted as a liaison between CEFC and the Washington-based think tank formed by former CIA director James Woolsey called the Analysis of Global Security. It is worth noting that Ye Jianming, the former chairman of CEFC, served as the chairman of the board of trustees of the Institute, the Free Beacon report noted.
According to a business prospectus created by one of Hunter Biden’s business associates, CEFC donated at least $350,000 to the Institute. The think tank has been promoting China’s controversial Belt and Road infrastructure program, the report added.
Court documents reveal that Luft also developed a close relationship with Patrick Ho, a CEFC China Energy executive who was convicted in 2019 for attempting to bribe African officials in exchange for oil rights on behalf of the company. In a letter of support for Ho, Luft referred to him as a “close friend and colleague,” the report said.
Hunter Biden, a lawyer by training, had a close relationship with Ye and represented Ho in his legal battle, the report noted.
Ye, who has ties to Chinese military intelligence, gave Hunter a diamond worth $80,000 during one of their meetings. Starting in 2017, CEFC began paying Hunter and his uncle Jim Biden to find energy investments for CEFC globally. Emails found on Biden’s laptop reveal that he and Ye discussed plans for CEFC to purchase a liquefied natural gas field in Louisiana. In a letter to Ye in November 2017, Biden stated that the projects were “good for both the United States and China simultaneously.”
