On Thursday, the Russian Ministry of Defense revealed new information about US-funded biolabs it has discovered in eastern Ukraine amid the Kremlin's special “neutralization” operation in the nation. According to findings by Russia’s Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defense Troops, one company connected to these biolabs and their work was founded by Hunter Biden and Christopher Heinz, the latter the stepson of former US Secretary of State John Kerry.
"Incoming materials have allowed us to trace the scheme of interaction between US government bodies and Ukraine's biolabs. The involvement in the financing of these activities by structures close to the current US leadership, in particular the Rosemont Seneca investment fund managed by Hunter Biden, draws attention to itself," RCBD Troops chief Igor Kirillov said in a briefing Thursday, noting the fund has at least $2.4 billion in investment capital.
Rosemont Seneca Partners was founded in 2009 by Biden, Heinz and Heinz’s college roommate and fellow financier, Devon Archer, according to the Financial Times. Biden and Heinz were described as company co-owners and Archer as a “managing partner” in a report to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
The private equity firm was anchored by the Heinz family alternative investment fund, Rosemont Capital, and was formed to “be populated by political loyalists and positioned to strike profitable deals overseas with foreign governments and officials with whom the US government was negotiating,” according to the 2018 book “Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends,” by Peter Schweizer.
Some of those deals attracted significant concern as they seemed contrary to US political interests, including in China and Ukraine. In a deal in 2014, Rosemont Seneca raised some $1.5 billion for a fund launched by Harvest Fund Management and Bohai Industrial Group, a group closely tied to Chinese state-owned enterprises. The resultant group was dubbed Bohai Harvest RST.
This became a problem the following year, when BHR joined the Chinese state-owned defense firm Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) to buy anti-vibration automotive parts from American precision-parts manufacturer Henniges - a deal agreed to during the Obama administration. A US Senate investigation in 2019 found a significant conflict of interest in the deal, as anti-vibration technology is considered “dual use,” having both civilian and military applications.
Also in 2014, in Ukraine, Archer and later Biden joined the board of the gas firm Burisma Holdings, owned by Ukrainian businessman Mykola Zlochevsky, whom the US State Department described as an “odious oligarch,” according to the 2019 Senate probe. This deal, too, presented conflicts of interest, as the Obama administration - in which Hunter’s father, Joe Biden, served as US Vice President and director of its Ukraine policy after the February 2014 coup - was ostensibly sponsoring anti-corruption work by a post-coup government.
In one notable incident that Joe Biden boasted about years later but which Western media has tried to spin as conspiracy theory, Biden successfully pressured then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to fire Viktor Shokin, Ukraine’s top prosecutor, who was heading an investigation of Zlochevsky and Burisma. Zlochevsky, meanwhile, was funneling millions to Hunter Biden and Archer for sitting on Burisma’s board and for Rosemont Seneca’s “consulting services,” documents obtained by the Senate probe show.
Rosemont Seneca sought to disguise its investments in Burisma, as did top Obama administration officials, including then-Secretary of State John Kerry - Heinz’s stepfather. Heinz attempted to distance himself from Archer’s and Hunter’s decision to join the Burisma board, writing to Kerry’s chief of staff, David Wade, that “based only on Heinz’s assurances, that ‘Rosemont Seneca was not involved’ with Burisma,” Heinz told the Senate probe.
“Mr. Heinz strongly warned Mr. Archer that working with Burisma was unacceptable. Mr. Archer stated that he and Hunter Biden intended to pursue the opportunity as individuals, not as part of the firm,” Chris Bastardi, a spokesperson for Heinz, told the Washington Post for a 2019 story.
According to the paper, Heinz pulled out of Rosemont as a result of his partners’ decision.
“The lack of judgment in this matter was a major catalyst for Mr. Heinz ending his business relationships with Mr. Archer and Mr. Biden,” Bastardi suggested.