How Hunter Biden got wrapped up in Burisma; what tax hikes mean for tax havens
Hi, welcome to Oligarchy, where we are tracking how the super rich are changing the world for the rest of us.
BURISMA
I have mixed feelings about Hunter Biden, whose unwise decision to join the board of a Ukrainian gas company shortly after Ukraine’s 2014 revolution ended up causing political turmoil in the United States. I had written an article about the gas company long before Donald Trump tried to manufacture a scandal out of it, and as a result ended up fielding so many calls from American journalists that I got rather grumpy.
While researching that article, I spent hours trying to reach Hunter Biden so I could ask him why on earth he would decide to hitch his star to that of Mykola Zlochevsky, a shaven-headed former Ukrainian minister of natural resource whose anonymously-owned company – Burisma – had done very well in the natural resources sector during his time in office. Sadly, Hunter Biden never replied, and I had to wait until this morning to hear from him, when his book popped onto my kindle.
Beautiful Things is a memoir, but I’m afraid I skipped through the sections that dealt with his addiction, his grief and his difficulties and – seeking enlightenment – headed straight for the part where he joined Burisma.