James Biden has long, lucrative history with questionable foreign business dealings

As congressional scrutiny of Biden family business dealings intensifies, yet another bombshell report suggests that despite past denials, the sitting president's closest relatives – including his brother – have been cultivating lucrative relationships with China and other foreign actors for years, as the Washington Examiner explains.

Sarah Bedford, an investigative reporter with the outlet, first chronicles Biden family involvement in an affiliation with Chinese energy conglomerate CEFC, which James Biden – sibling of President Joe Biden – described back in 2017 as a “life-changing event.”

As Bedford notes, CEFC and the Bidens enjoyed an easy rapport, with one of the firm's executives even sharing office space with Joe Biden soon after he concluded his service as Barack Obama's vice president.

Though there had also been talks of cutting Joe Biden in on the takings produced by a continued relationship with CEFC, by 2018, the joint venture between the Chinese executives and James and current first son Hunter Biden all but evaporated.

Despite his involvement with CEFC – an entity the U.S. government has since characterized as a foreign agent pursuing influence on behalf of Beijing – it does not appear that James Biden is a target of the federal probe of Hunter Biden.

That is not to say, however, that the president's brother has evaded other forms of suspicion when it comes to family members allegedly attempting to capitalize on Joe Biden's political clout, as Bedford further notes.

During the early years of Joe Biden's career in government, James Biden became entangled in legal wrangling over loans he used to open a Delaware nightclub, prompting his brother to intervene with a warning to bank executives about what they could and could not do in terms of seeking repayment.

James Biden stood precariously astride an ethical line yet again during his sibling's time in the U.S. Senate with regard to his relationship with Paradigm Global Advisors.

During that time, James Biden orchestrated the ouster of the firm's president and informed management that massive foreign investments were imminent, saying, “We've got people all around the world who want to invest in Joe Biden.”

“We've got investors lined up in a line of 747s filled with cash ready to invest in this company,” James Biden boasted, clearly banking on his brother's influence as something of a monetary printing press.

While James Biden is depicted by Bedford as one of the driving forces behind the family's strategic involvement with foreign income sources, he has certainly not been the only recipient of the fruits of such relationships, as Bedford notes.

Hallie Biden, widow of Joe Biden's older son, Beau Biden, reportedly received sums from a Chinese fund connected to the former head of CEFC, and Sara Biden, wife of James Biden, was also paid by the firm for nebulous administrative services she purportedly provided to her husband.

House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) has been probing the first family's overseas business dealings for months, and he has recently indicated that upwards of nine different members of the Biden clan have taken proceeds from foreign business arrangements reached during Joe Biden's tenure as vice president.

Hunter Biden himself – while recently standing before a federal judge in Delaware – has admitted receiving payments from CEFC, as Fox News noted, a declaration that seems to fully and undeniably undermine blanket denials that have been issued by his father on the subject since before he was elected president.