The Department of Justice on Thursday filed new criminal charges against U.S. President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, accusing him of failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes.
Biden was hit with three felony and six misdemeanor tax offenses, according to an indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.
He faces up to 17 years in prison if convicted on the charges. The Justice Department said its investigation into Biden is ongoing.
“The Defendant engaged in a four-year scheme to not pay at least $1.4 million in self-assessed federal taxes he owed for tax years 2016 through 2019,” the indictment read.
It added that Biden had “spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle rather than paying his tax bills.”
Prosecutors allege that Biden:
- Withdrew millions of dollars from his company’s coffers outside of the payroll and tax withholding process;
- Stopped paying his outstanding and overdue taxes for tax year 2015;
- 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;
- Failed to file his 2017 and 2018 tax returns on time,
- and when filing his 2018 returns, included false business deductions in order to reduce the very substantial tax liability he faced as of February 2020.
The indictment states that Hunter Biden “earned handsomely” while serving on the boards of a Ukrainian industrial conglomerate and a Chinese private equity fund.
But his expenditures increased as his income increased, according to the charges.
In 2018 alone, the indictment read, Hunter Biden “spent more than $1.8 million, including approximately $772,000 in cash withdrawals, approximately $383,000 in payments to women (and) approximately $151,000 in clothing and accessories” among other expenditures.
The indictment added: “The defendant did not use any of these funds to pay his taxes in 2018.”
A spokesperson for Special Counsel David Weiss and a lawyer for Hunter Biden did not immediately reply for requests for comment.
Hunter Biden in October pleaded not guilty to charges that he lied about his drug use while buying a handgun, in the first criminal prosecution of a sitting U.S. president’s child.
Weiss brought those charges against Hunter Biden after an earlier proposed plea deal unraveled under questioning from a judge. Weiss is still investigating whether the younger Biden can be charged for tax law violations.
The special counsel investigating Hunter has employed a grand jury in Los Angeles to seek documents and possible testimony from multiple witnesses as part of the federal investigation of Hunter Biden’s business dealings, CNN reported last month.
(Reporting by Jasper Ward; additional reporting Noeleen Walder in New York, Andrew Goudsward in Washington and Brad Brooks in Longmont, Colorado; editing by Eric Beech and Ross Colvin)
City News Service contributed to this report.
