Hunter Biden encounters fresh legal woes with federal charges alleging he evaded $1.4 million (£1.1 million) in tax payments, marking a second criminal case against the son of the U.S. president.
In addition to the nine-count indictment, details emerge of a lavish spending spree between 2016 and 2019, involving drugs and escorts.
In September, a 53-year-old Mr. Biden faced an indictment for the alleged offense of owning a gun while on drugs and for not disclosing his addictions on a required form.
His attorney, on Thursday night, maintained that the recently brought charges are politically motivated.
The indictment conspicuously omits any mention of President Joe Biden, and the White House has chosen not to provide any commentary.
This development occurs as congressional Republicans position Hunter Biden’s business transactions as a focal point in an impeachment inquiry targeting President Biden, who is gearing up for re-election next year.
Should he be found guilty in the tax case, Hunter Biden may potentially be sentenced to a maximum of 17 years in prison.
The array of three felonies and six misdemeanors encompasses allegations ranging from failure to file and pay taxes to submitting a false tax return and evading assessment.
Read also: Hunter Biden Indicted For Federal Firearm Violations
The Yale-educated lawyer and recovering crack cocaine addict have been under investigation by US Department of Justice Special Counsel David Weiss since 2019.
In a 56-page indictment filed in California, prosecutors allege he spent his money on ‘drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing, and other items of a personal nature, in short, everything but his taxes’.
They say the president’s son ‘individually received more than $7 million in total gross income’ between 2016 and 2020, but ‘willfully failed to pay his 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 taxes on time, despite having access to funds to pay some or all of these taxes’.
Hunter Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, responded to the new charges by saying that ‘if Hunter’s last name was anything other than Biden, the charges in Delaware, and now California, would not have been brought’.
Hunter Biden eventually paid all his taxes and fines back in 2020 – with the help of a loan from his personal attorney.
The indictment includes a chart outlining the breakdown of Hunter Biden’s spending.
The charge sheet discloses that between 2016 and 2019, he allocated over $188,000 for “adult entertainment” and more than $683,000 for “payments – various women.”
‘Hunter Biden continued to earn handsomely and to spend wildly in 2018,’ prosecutors allege.
Detailed in the indictment is the acknowledgment that he earned “substantial” income, derived from a company he co-founded with a Chinese business conglomerate, the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, and an unidentified Romanian businessperson.
According to the indictment, his expenditures on an “extravagant lifestyle” escalated in tandem with his increasing income.