The dealings have brought Joe unwelcome scrutiny and threaten to distract from his presidential bid.Ī spokesman for Biden’s campaign, Andrew Bates, declined to comment for this story. But over the years, several of their partners and associates have ended up indicted or convicted. None of the ventures appear to have been runaway successes, and Biden’s relatives have not been accused of criminal wrongdoing in their dealings.

Interviews, court records, government filings and news reports, however, reveal that some members of the Biden family have consistently mixed business and politics over nearly half a century, moving from one business to the next as Joe’s stature in Washington grew. There’s no evidence that Joe Biden used his power inappropriately or took action to benefit his relatives with respect to these ventures. He refers to himself as “Middle-Class Joe,” and presents himself as a corrective to a system rigged by financiers and networked corporate elites.īiden’s image as a straight-shooting man of the people, however, is clouded by the careers of his son and brother, who have lengthy track records of making, or seeking, deals that cash in on his name. As recently as 2009, his net worth was less than $30,000, though in recent years he has made millions from book sales and speaking fees. A spokesman for James and Hunter said they did not end up marketing the fund to unions.Īs Joe Biden runs for the Democratic presidential nomination on the argument he can strongly appeal to the party’s dwindling base of blue-collar supporters, the candidate has often made the point that he hasn’t gotten rich from his decades in politics. “I was told because of his relationships with the unions that they felt as though it would be favorably looked upon to invest in the fund as long as it was a good fund,” Provini recalled.ĭocuments submitted as part of a legal dispute over Paradigm’s acquisition show James Biden planned to solicit investments for it from union pension funds. Three former Paradigm executives said James and Hunter Biden also sought to capitalize on Joe’s strong ties to labor unions in the hopes of landing investments from them Charles Provini, who briefly served as Paradigm’s president, said both James and Hunter repeatedly cited Joe’s political ties when they recruited him to work for the fund. Beau Biden died in 2015, at 46.īut the recollection of an effort to cash in on Joe’s political ties is consistent with other accounts provided by other former executives at the fund. He told his uncle, “This can never leave this room, and if you ever say it again, I will have nothing to do with this.”Ī spokesman for James and Hunter Biden said no such episode ever occurred. “We've got investors lined up in a line of 747s filled with cash ready to invest in this company,” the executive remembers James Biden saying.Īt this, the executive recalled, Beau Biden, who was then running for attorney general of Delaware, turned bright red. According to the executive, James Biden made it clear he viewed the fund as a way to take money from rich foreigners who could not legally give money to his older brother or his campaign account. “We've got people all around the world who want to invest in Joe Biden.”Īt the time, the senator was just months away from both assuming the chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and launching his second presidential bid.

“Don’t worry about investors,” he said, according to the executive, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of retaliation.

After the firing, the two large men escorted the fund’s president out of the firm’s midtown Manhattan office, and James Biden laid out his vision for the fund’s future.

Once a thief family business