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When even an Obama-era ethics advisor was raising red flags over Hunter’s newfound ‘art career’ as being an enormous avenue for corruption, the White House waved those concerns away.
We reported on his ethical objections to the White House’s arrangements around the art deal when the story first came to light. But he’s not finished. Just this week, the same ethics advisor was ripping the White House a new one over Hunter’s art deals again.
The former ethics chief under President Obama slammed the Biden White House Thursday for allowing Hunter Biden to sell his paintings for tens of thousands of dollars without disclosing his buyers’ identities, arguing that the buyers’ anonymity could provide an opportunity for a pay-to-play scheme.
Walter Shaub, head of the Office of Government Ethics from 2013 to 2017, has repeatedly criticized the Biden administration for what he has deemed egregious ethical violations, calling the president’s son’s art-selling deal with the White House the “perfect mechanism for funneling bribes.”
The deal Hunter struck with the White House requires that his buyers’ identities be concealed from him and the public, with his gallery handling all transactions. Nothing is in place, however, to prevent the buyers from identifying themselves to gain favor with the administration.
During an appearance on Law & Crime’s Objections podcast, Shaub doubled down, saying that it was outrageous that the younger Biden is selling paintings for exorbitant prices despite his lack of artistic experience. —NationalReview
Imagine what he’d be saying if he knew the guy responsible for the sales had a criminal record. Not just ANY criminal record, either.
The art dealer who the White House has tapped to vet Hunter Biden’s art sales for ethical conflicts was sentenced to three months in jail in 1998 for threatening to stab a man to death and was later accused of defrauding an investor in a messy 2016 lawsuit, raising alarms with ethics watchdogs.
Georges Bergès, the gallery owner who is scheduled to host exhibitions of Hunter Biden’s paintings this fall, will be responsible for approving sales of the art works—which are priced between $75,000 and $500,000 and will be open to foreign buyers—according to the White House. — FreeBeacon
What do we know about this guy?
Bergès pleaded no contest to making terrorist threats, a misdemeanor charge. He was sentenced to 90 days in jail, required to submit to warrantless police searches, and barred from contacting the victim or possessing deadly weapons for 36 months, according to court records.
…Bergès was also caught up in a 2016 lawsuit in which artist Ingrid Arneberg, the daughter of a Norwegian shipping tycoon, accused Bergès of defrauding her out of a $500,000 investment in his gallery.
Arneberg claimed that Bergès made numerous financial misrepresentations in the investment proposal and that his gallery was in dire economic straits at the time, according to federal court filings in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. She said the art dealer misled her about how much additional funding he raised and falsely claimed that he sold two dozen paintings by a well-known contemporary artist for $50,000 each, when the actual numbers were significantly lower.
In court records, Arneberg also cited alleged text messages between Bergès and a friend in which the gallery owner supposedly mused that he might have to have sex with Arneberg to convince her to invest.
“Malcolm [Bricklin] thinks I may have to sleep with her [Arneberg] because she is just divorced,” Bergès allegedly said in one text message. In other texts, he reportedly described Bricklin, one of his business associates, as “the Godfather shark” who “smells money” and “is about a quick buck and I have to reign him in all the time.” — FreeBeacon
Yikes. Leave it to THIS White House administration to dig up someone just as sketchy as Hunter himself to oversee the ‘transparency’ and ‘ethics’ of the Hunter art deals.
The content of this book, The Art of Joe: The Political Brilliance of President Biden, is a direct reflection of what’s inside Joe Biden’s brain namely, nothing. The chapter, Notable Quotable Joe should be read aloud at MAGA parties from coast-to-coast.
