Dr. Patrick Ho, a Chinese client, is seeking the reimbursement of $1 million from Hunter Biden as part of the outstanding payments.
Dr. Patrick Ho, an employee of the Chinese company CEFC, paid Hunter Biden $1 million to represent him in court. However, Ho is now threatening to sue the first son in seven days if he doesn’t receive the money back, claiming Hunter did no legal work on his behalf.
Last week, Ho issued Hunter a formal letter requesting the immediate termination of their attorney-client relationship and threatening legal action unless he obtains a comprehensive record of services rendered by Hunter and compensation for any unused cash, as specified in the 2017 contract.
A seven-day deadline was stipulated in a letter from Ho, the Hong Kong law firm Huen & Partners, to Hunter’s Washington, DC, attorney Abbe Lowell regarding the reimbursement of any outstanding payments.
The Epstein documents that were made public reveal that Bill Clinton, Stephen Hawking, and Michael Jackson were at a Jeffrey Epstein orgy.
A friend of Ho’s said, “Patrick says he paid him and that Hunter never did anything for him, and that the money should be reimbursed by the contract.”
According to his California tax indictment, the $1 million legal retainer was wired from CEFC in China to the company’s Hong Kong HSBC account. On November 2, 2017, it was transferred to the American bank account of Hudson West III (HWIII), which Hunter co-owned, and finally to Hunter’s private company, Owasco.
On November 18, 2017, Ho was taken into custody upon landing in New York from Hong Kong.
2019 saw the conviction of the former home affairs secretary for Hong Kong for bribing the presidents of Uganda and Chad. He was sent to prison for three years and then expelled to Hong Kong.
Ho claims that although Hunter, 54, took the $1 million and kept it for himself, all he did for Ho was call another lawyer, Edward Kim, and show up to a meeting with Ho and Kim at the Manhattan Correctional Center thirty minutes late the day after Ho was arrested.
Ho,74, told pals angrily that Hunter never visited him while he was incarcerated.
In the Southern District of New York, Hunter’s name is not included as a counsel in the Patrick Ho case.
During his unsuccessful plea hearing on July 26, 2023, Hunter testified before US District Judge Maryellen Noreika in Delaware that he obtained the $1 million through “my own law firm” as “payment for legal fees for Patrick Ho.”
“Who is that payment received from, was that the law firm?” Noreika inquired, wanting further information.
Hunter: “Received from Patrick Ho, Your Honor.”
Noreika: “Mr. Ho himself?”
Hunter: “Yes.”
Noreika: “Were you doing legal work for him and apart from the law firm?”
Hunter: “Yes, Your Honor. Well –.”
At this juncture, Hunter’s attorney Chris Clark intervened, seeing danger: “That wasn’t through Boise Schiller, Your Honor, Mr. Biden was engaged as an attorney.”
Noreika: “Right. So that’s why I asked. You were doing work for him –.”
Hunter: “My own law firm, not as counsel.”
Noreika: “So you had your own law firm as well?”
Hunter: “I think Owasco PT acted as a — acted as a law firm entity, yeah.”
Noreika: “Okay.”
Hunter: “I believe that’s the case, but I don’t know that for a fact.”
According to his acquaintance, Ho had been closely following Hunter’s struggles from Hong Kong and was “baffled” by what Hunter had to say to Noreika. He was left with an enormous cost that he had to pay out of pocket for Kim’s legal representation.
In addition to being discovered on Hunter’s abandoned laptop, an electronic email search warrant acquired by IRS investigator Joe Ziegler also included a copy of the attorney engagement agreement that Hunter had signed on September 18, 2017.
“The evidence… indicates that this $1 million payment was not for legal fees and was misrepresented by the Delaware U.S. Attorney’s Office in the statement of facts and that its ultimate purpose was still under investigation by DOJ,” Ziegler said in testimony given to the House Ways and Means Committee last year.
Ho’s letter was written a few days after President Biden’s brother Jim Biden testified during the impeachment investigation, claiming to have told the FBI that CEFC chairman Ye Jianming was a “protege” of China’s President Xi Jinping. Ho’s friend said that Xi and Ye have “no relations,” so Beijing was not pleased with the statement.
Xi gave the order for Ye’s arrest in China in February 2018, according to the Chinese news outlet Caixin. Since then, no one has heard from him.
Since its 1997 designation as a Special Administrative Region of China, Beijing has been exerting more and more influence on Hong Kong.
A total of $7.2 million was paid to Hunter by CEFC between March 2017 and March 2018. In February 2017, Ye also gave Hunter a 3.16-carat diamond. The grading report described the diamond as a “round brilliant” of Grade F with prime “VS2” clarity and “excellent” cut, and Hunter’s ex-wife Kathleen’s divorce lawyer had put its estimated value at $80,000. On Hunter’s laptop, pictures of the gorgeous stone and the grading report surface.
Hunter stated in his testimony before the impeachment hearing last week that he gave Jim Biden, his uncle, the diamond. According to Jim’s testimony, he “threw it in the trash.” Jim further stated in his testimony that Hunter received a second diamond, or diamond “ring,” in 2015 or 2016 from a fellow parent of a kid at the prestigious Sidwell Friends school in Washington on behalf of CEFC.
“Attorney will perform the legal services called for under this agreement, keep Client informed of progress and developments, and respond promptly to Client’s inquiries and communications,” stated the Ho-Hunter attorney engagement agreement.
“Conferences, court sessions, participation in and preparation for depositions; review and preparation of correspondence and legal documents; legal research; and telephone conversations” were among the legal services offered.
“If at the conclusion of this agreement, the total amount of Attorney fees and costs is less than that of the retainer sum, the remaining amount will be reimbursed to the client.”
On October 10, 2017, Ziegler testified, and CEFC’s Mervyn Yan emailed Ho’s letter to Hunter, Jim Biden, and Jim’s wife, Sara. Jim said in court that he was unsure if Hunter was speaking on behalf of Ho.
In addition to leading CEFC, Ho was the head of its nonprofit think tank, CEFC, which was given UN “special consultative status.”
