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A consulting firm linked to Hunter Biden that did work for Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company that paid the Biden scion $83,000 a month to sit on its board, is under investigation by the Justice Department, according to a report on Thursday.
Blue Star Strategies is being probed for potential illegal lobbying after it took on Burisma as a client while Hunter was on its board, Politico reported.
The US Attorney’s Office in Delaware, which is already investigating Hunter for possible “tax” violations, is working with lawyers in the Justice Department’s National Security Division in Washington, DC, the report said.
One aspect of the investigation is whether Blue Star failed to comply with the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) that requires Americans to disclose lobbying work for foreign entities.
The report noted that there is no indication that Hunter is a target in the investigation, and Karen Tramontano, one of the firm’s co-founders, testified that the president’s son did not direct any of Blue Star’s work on behalf of Burisma.
Blue Star Strategies logo.
Blue Star is a Washington lobbying firm with multiple global offices.
Blue Star
Hunter’s association with Burisma was the subject of a series of exposés The Post published last October that highlighted his questionable foreign business dealings and his father’s involvement.
Blue Star, a high-powered Washington lobbying firm that also has offices in Brussels, Buenos Aires, Paris and Vienna, took on Burisma as a client in November 2015.
The energy company’s founder had been caught up in a dispute with British authorities over millions of dollars and was hit with accusations of corruption by the then-US ambassador to Ukraine.
Mykola Zlochevsky, Ukraine’s natural resources minister from July 2010 to April 2012, controlled Burisma.
British authorities in April 2014 seized $23 million from Zlochevsky, alleging that it had been corruptly misappropriated, the report said.
Then in January 2015, a British judge ruled in favor of Zlochevsky, saying he could get his money back because of a letter from Ukraine’s prosecutor that he was not under investigation.
But then-US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt accused Burisma of corruption and slammed the prosecutor’s office for aiding Zlochevsky in getting his millions back, which is when Burisma’s top officials sought Blue Star’s help.
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https://nypost.com/2021/06/03/lobbying-firm-linked-to-hunter-biden-probed-by-doj-report/