Convicted FBI agent tipped off Hunter Biden-linked Chinese company about criminal investigation

The since-convicted FBI official who led counterintelligence efforts in New York leaked information to an affiliate of a Chinese company which was linked to Hunter Biden’s business efforts, according to a DOJ watchdog who concluded the leak tipped the Chinese conglomerate off about the bureau’s criminal investigation.

Charles McGonigal, the former special-agent-in-charge of the FBI Counterintelligence Division in New York, leaked information to “Person B” – an unnamed businessman who worked for the Chinese energy conglomerate CEFC – even as the FBI was secretly investigating the Chinese company, according to the new report by Acting DOJ Inspector General William M. Blier.

McGonigal, who was sentenced in December 2023 for money laundering related to a Russian oligarch and in February 2024 for receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars from an Albanian government official, met with prosecutors in November 2023 and “acknowledged during the proffer interview that he shared information with Person B about the CEFC investigation and anticipated arrests arising from it.”

The DOJ watchdog said that “Person B was a consultant to foreign governments and businesses on international investments, and, in addition to his work for CEFC China, Person B was a non-governmental advisor to the Prime Minister of Albania.”

The watchdog report assessed that “although the full extent of the harm from McGonigal’s leaks of sensitive investigative information to foreign subjects and targets will likely never be fully known, we determined that the impact of McGonigal’s conduct on the CEFC investigation, a significant FBI criminal investigation, was substantial.”

President Joe Biden’s son held a lucrative position on the board of Ukrainian energy giant Burisma when his father was vice president. He also pursued business deals in China and elsewhere during and after his father’s tenure and received millions from Chinese government-linked entities. He raked in millions thanks to these associations from 2013 to 2018.

CEFC was a multibillion-dollar Chinese conglomerate founded by Ye Jianming, a Chinese Communist Party-linked business tycoon who subsequently disappeared in China but with whom Hunter Biden had attempted to work out numerous deals. Chinese state-run media named Ye in an alleged corruption case in 2018, and China allowed CEFC to go bankrupt.

Hunter Biden and his associated businesses are also believed to have received $5 million or more in payments from CEFC in 2017 and 2018, and Ye Jianming’s deputy, Patrick Ho, also agreed to pay Hunter Biden a $1 million legal retainer after Ho was eventually arrested. Ho agreed to the $1 million retainer with Hunter Biden for “counsel to matters related to U.S. law and advice pertaining to the hiring and legal analysis of any U.S. law firm or lawyer,” according to an “attorney engagement letter” located on Hunter Biden’s laptop hard drive.

The first call Ho reportedly made after his arrest in late 2017 was to Joe Biden’s brother, James, who has said he thought the call was meant for Hunter. Ho had tried reaching out for help because Hunter Biden agreed to represent him as part of his efforts to work out a liquefied natural gas deal worth tens of millions of dollars.

Hunter referred to Ho as “the fucking spy chief of China” in a May 11, 2018, voice recording.

Ho was sentenced to three years in prison in March 2019 for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. He was deported to Hong Kong in June 2021 after serving his sentence. It was later revealed that the Justice Department had likely obtained Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant against Ho. Republicans accused now-former Attorney General Merrick Garland of not being forthcoming about the apparent FISA against Ho.

The DOJ watchdog said “McGonigal eventually admitted he disclosed to Person B that the FBI planned to arrest individuals associated with CEFC.”

Despite this admission by the ex-FBI official, the DOJ watchdog said that the terms of McGonigal’s proffer agreement meant that “the information McGonigal provided in the proffer could not be used against McGonigal in any criminal proceeding.”

The watchdog report revealed that the FBI’s New York field office and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York in late 2022 “considered charging McGonigal with obstruction of justice for both the disclosure of confidential government information to Person B, as well as for failing to disclose to the case agents information McGonigal learned from Person B that was relevant to the CEFC investigation” but that “ultimately, following an evaluation of the available evidence at that time, SDNY USAO did not charge McGonigal for obstruction of justice for his conduct relating to the CEFC investigative information.”

The DOJ inspector general nevertheless determined “that while he was the SAC entrusted with overseeing FBI NY’s Counterintelligence Program, McGonigal engaged in a scheme that obstructed an important multi-year criminal investigation under his supervision and compromised the integrity of the FBI.”

“McGonigal admitted making it perfectly clear to Person B that ‘these people would be arrested’ and that Person B would be arrested, too, if he was involved. McGonigal said that he did not recall disclosing to Person B who specifically would be arrested but that he remembered discussing Ho and the CEFC China Chairman with Person B,” the DOJ watchdog wrote. 

“Eventually during his proffer, McGonigal acknowledged that he told Person B and Person A that the FBI was going to arrest individuals associated with CEFC (not just that they ‘would’ arrest people who were breaking the law.) 

McGonigal said that Person B told him that Ho was expected to travel (to the United States) and that McGonigal at some point told Person B that Ho would be arrested if Ho did so. 

McGonigal further acknowledged that Person B asked whether the chairman was going to be charged, and McGonigal told Person B that ‘there was a chance.’ 

According to McGonigal, he was motivated by ‘bravado’ in disclosing information to Person B about the CEFC investigation and anticipated arrests.”

The DOJ watchdog concluded that “it was McGonigal’s June 2017 leak to Person B that led to the CEFC China Chairman discussing ‘the Ho situation’ with Person B in France in July 2017 and meeting with Ho and Target 3 in Hong Kong in August 2017 to warn both of them that U.S. authorities planned to arrest Ho and others, including possibly a Jewish person associated with CEFC. Based on the evidence described in this report, we concluded that the Chairman’s warning played at least some role in Target 3’s decision not to return to the United States in November 2017 or at any time since then.”

“As the SAC over Counterintelligence in FBI NY since October 2016, and an FBI agent since 1996, McGonigal was well aware of his obligations to keep investigations and planned arrests confidential, to share information relevant to the investigation with his case team, and that his failure to do so could have an adverse effect on the case,” the DOJ inspector general report said. “Although McGonigal attempted to minimize his motivations as mere ‘bravado,’ the evidence showed that McGonigal's actions were motivated by his desire to protect Person B, a potentially lucrative business connection for him upon retiring from the FBl.”

The DOJ inspector general stressed additionally that “the impact of McGonigal's misconduct extends far beyond the damage he inflicted on the CEFC case” because “when an SAC trades sensitive government information for personal advantage and engages in the same conduct he is responsible for investigating, the betrayal infects the morale of those who serve the FBI with honor and integrity and undermines the public's confidence in the FBI.”

Despite apparently being warned about an FBI investigation by McGonigal, Ho nevertheless returned to the U.S. in late 2017. The DOJ watchdog said this was likely due to bad advice given to Ho by Hunter’s uncle and business partner James Biden, the brother of the former vice president and future president.

“The FBI case team told us, based on the below-described evidence FBI NY obtained during its investigation of the leaks, that they concluded Ho decided to attend the CEFC event after James Biden or another individual likely told Ho, relying on information provided by a private investigator, that it was safe for Ho to return to the United States,” the DOJ watchdog said.

The GOP-led House Oversight Committee’s report in 2023 provided “information about the Biden family’s troubling receipt of payments from China, particularly the individual Ye Jianming and his company, CEFC, to show what was from 2015 to 2018 a growing interest by people closely tied to the CCP in cultivating a relationship with the Biden family.”

Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., had revealed Biden family financial details in March 2023 after he obtained them through a subpoena of Hunter Biden associate Rob Walker’s financial records at Bank of America. The House Oversight Committee chairman revealed that “from 2015 through 2017, Biden family members and their companies received over $1.3 million in payments” from accounts tied to Walker.

Comer said more than $1 million was sent in incremental payments to Hunter Biden, his uncle and Joe’s brother James Biden, and Hallie Biden, the widow of the president’s deceased son, Beau Biden, with whom Hunter was having a romantic relationship in 2017 following his brother’s death, shortly after Walker received a $3 million wire from a Chinese company called State Energy HK.

State Energy HK was “affiliated” with CEFC “at the time of the transfers,” according to a report issued by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., in 2020. State Energy HK detailed a 2017 transaction with CEFC in a business report.

Shortly before the March 2017 Chinese wires from State Energy HK occurred, Ye, the now-former CEFC leader, met with Hunter Biden on Feb. 14, 2017, in Miami, Florida. It was there that Ye reportedly gifted Hunter Biden with a 3.16-carat diamond allegedly valued at $80,000.

Comer released further financial records from his investigation into “the Biden family’s influence peddling and business schemes” in May 2023 by highlighting bank records related to Hunter Biden-linked business deals in Romania and China. The ​​report argued the bank records showed that “the Biden family, their business associates, and their companies received over $10 million” from companies belonging to foreign nationals.

McGonigal was sentenced to 50 months in prison in December 2023 for conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and to commit money laundering in connection with his 2021 agreement to provide illicit services to sanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.

The disgraced FBI official was then sentenced to 28 months in prison in February 2024 for his undisclosed receipt of $225,000 in cash from an individual with ties to the Albanian government while McGonigal was supervising counterintelligence investigations.

The two prison sentences are to be served consecutively.

Then-candidate Joe Biden claimed during a 2020 presidential debate with President Donald Trump that “nothing was unethical” about Hunter Biden’s role with Burisma. Joe Biden also incorrectly claimed, “My son has not made money in terms of this thing about — what are you talking about — China. … The only guy that made money from China is this guy. He’s the only one. Nobody else has made money from China.”

Biden granted his son a “full and unconditional pardon” in December 2024 for any crimes he may have committed from 2014 through the day of the pardon.