The secret of the Biden family's mysterious wealth is gradually being unearthed, says a criminal fraud expert.
Fraud investigator Charles Ortel told Sputnik that the Biden family "has never made an honest nickel in its life."
He recalled that during the 1988 election campaign, a much younger and more coherent, "had to basically repudiate himself" and admit "he was a serial liar and plagiarist."
"In 1980, Biden was basically technically bankrupt, much like the Clintons were in 2000 when they left the White House," Ortel said. He didn't have a pot to pee in. He had big, big loans against the house. He had big expenses for his family. And really nothing changed until in seems 2017."
Looking at Biden's published tax returns going back to 1998, the sleuth noted that from 2001 to 2016 he had around $250,000 of taxable income per year.
"Which is not really a lot when you're a senator and you're commuting back and forth and you've got kids you had to put through college and grad school and you've got an expensive mortgage on your house," Ortel stressed.
But in the year after he left office as vice-president on January 20, 2017, Biden's declared income suddenly soared nearly 40-fold. "Jill and Joe report taxable income of $9.6 million for 2017. That's just absurd," he said.
Ortel said the money came from two "shady sources", both corporate entities named in reference to Joe Biden's Irish heritage and the original Italian surname of his wife Jill's family.
The first, CelticCapri, was set up at the end of January 2017 and only operated for 11 months. But during that time it paid the Bidens $9.1 million, approximately $860,000 per month. The other corporation, Giacoppa, was founded on March 15 2017 and paid out more than $560,000 to the couple.
"In the real world in which I think we operate, try to make a nickel in the end in the private sector," Ortel challenged. "There is no way that a stumblebum and his family with no relevant private sector experience... will get involved with two start-up companies and make that kind of money in the first year when, by the way, in 2017, the average family in the top 10 per cent suffered an eight per cent decline in their income."
"The mainstream press has protected Biden and worked to install and deflect any realistic criticism against the Biden family," Ortel said. "He's gotten the benefit of the doubt for way too long, and I think the reckoning has finally arrived."
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