Chinese firm CEFC paid Hunter Biden $1 million to act as attorney for its employee, Dr. Patrick Ho, but now Ho is threatening to sue the first son within seven days unless he gets the money back — because he claims Hunter did no legal work for him.
Ho sent a legal letter to Hunter last week requesting that their attorney-client agreement be terminated immediately and threatening legal action unless he receives a detailed list of services provided by Hunter and reimbursement for the unused funds, as laid out in the 2017 contract.
Ho’s letter, sent by Hong Kong law firm Huen & Partners to Hunter’s attorney Abbe Lowell in Washington, DC, set a deadline of seven days for the repayment of any remaining funds.
“Patrick says he paid him and that Hunter never did anything for him,” a friend of Ho’s told The Post, “and that according to the contract, the money should be reimbursed.”
The $1 million legal retainer was wired from CEFC in China to CEFC’s Hong Kong HSBC account and then, on November 2, 2017, to the American bank account of Hudson West III (HWIII), the firm Hunter co-owned with CEFC, and then to Hunter’s private firm, Owasco, according to his California tax indictment.
Ho was arrested in New York on November 18, 2017, as he got off a plane from Hong Kong.
The former Hong Kong home affairs secretary was convicted in 2019 for paying bribes to the presidents of Chad and Uganda. He was sentenced to three years in jail before being deported to Hong Kong.
According to Ho, Hunter, 54, pocketed the $1 million but did no legal work for him other than call another attorney, Edward Kim, and turn up half an hour late for a meeting with Ho and Kim at the Manhattan Correctional Center the morning after Ho’s arrest.
Hunter didn’t visit Ho, 74, even once in jail, Ho has told friends bitterly.
Hunter’s name does not appear as an attorney on record for the Patrick Ho case in the Southern District of New York.
Under oath, Hunter told US District Judge Maryellen Noreika in Delaware, during his failed plea hearing on July 26, 2023, that he received the $1 million as “payment for legal fees for Patrick Ho” through “my own law firm.
Noreika wanted more details: “Who is that payment received from? Was that the law firm?”
Hunter: “Received from Patrick Ho, Your Honor.”
Noreika: “Mr. Ho himself?”
Hunter: “Yes.”
Noreika: “Were you doing legal work for him and apart from the law firm?”
Hunter: “Yes, Your Honor. Well –.”
Sensing danger, Hunter’s lawyer Chris Clark stepped in at this point: “That wasn’t through Boise Schiller, Your Honor, Mr. Biden was engaged as an attorney.”
Noreika: “Right. So that’s why I asked. You were doing work for him –.”
Hunter: “My own law firm, not as counsel.”
Noreika: “So you had your own law firm as well?”
Hunter: “I think Owasco PT acted as a — acted as a law firm entity, yeah.”
Noreika: “Okay.”
Hunter: “I believe that’s the case, but I don’t know that for a fact.”
Ho, who has been keeping a close eye on Hunter’s travails from Hong Kong, according to his friend, was “baffled” by Hunter’s responses to Noreika. He was stuck with a massive legal bill for Kim’s representation, which he had to pay out of his own pocket.
A copy of the attorney engagement agreement that Hunter signed on September 18, 2017, was on his abandoned laptop and also was obtained by IRS investigator Joe Ziegler from an electronic email search warrant to Google.
Ziegler testified to the House Ways and Means Committee last year, “The evidence … indicates that this $1 million payment was not for legal fees and was misrepresented by the Delaware U.S. Attorney’s Office in the statement of facts and that its ultimate purpose was still under investigation by DOJ.
Ho, who has been keeping a close eye on Hunter’s travails from Hong Kong, according to his friend, was “baffled” by Hunter’s responses to Noreika. He was stuck with a massive legal bill for Kim’s representation, which he had to pay out of his own pocket.
A copy of the attorney engagement agreement that Hunter signed on September 18, 2017, was on his abandoned laptop and also was obtained by IRS investigator Joe Ziegler from an electronic email search warrant to Google.
Ziegler testified to the House Ways and Means Committee last year, “The evidence … indicates that this $1 million payment was not for legal fees and was misrepresented by the Delaware U.S. Attorney’s Office in the statement of facts and that its ultimate purpose was still under investigation by DOJ.”
