Future first son Hunter Biden was tied up in an eyebrow-raising proposal to sell off land around the US embassy in Bucharest, Romania to a group that included a Chinese company — as part of an effort to help a local real estate tycoon beat corruption charges.
The scandal-scarred former first son — whose ties to Romania date back to when his father, Joe Biden, was vice-president — became involved in the proposal after he agreed in 2015 to help the developer, Gabriel Popoviciu, fight criminal charges, according to a forthcoming book by New York Times reporter Ken Vogel.
The would-be land deal, which came about shortly after Biden left office as vice president in January 2017, was floated in an apparent attempt to convince Romanian prosecutors to drop the real estate fraud case against Popoviciu.