Patrick Ho, the lieutenant to the founder of the multibillion-dollar Chinese conglomerate CEFC China Energy, was indicted under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in the Southern District of New York for his role in a global money laundering and bribery scheme aimed at government officials in Africa. The Justice Department also accused Ho of helping with Iranian sanctions evasion and working to use the Chinese company’s connections to sell weaponry to Chad, Libya, and Qatar.
Ho immediately tried reaching out to the younger Biden for help because that summer, as investigators circled, Hunter agreed to represent Ho as part of Hunter’s efforts to work out a liquified natural gas deal worth tens of millions of dollars with CEFC China Energy’s leader Ye Jianming.
The vice president’s financier brother said he was surprised by the call from Ho, but told the Chinese businessman how to get in touch with his nephew.
"There is nothing else I have to say," James Biden told the New York Times in 2018. "I don’t want to be dragged into this anymore."
The lucrative deal Biden set up with CEFC China Energy fell apart when Ye Jianming disappeared after being detained by Chinese authorities in 2018, and Ho was sentenced to three years in federal prison in March.