Hunter Biden received monthly payments of $83,333 for 'consulting services' while serving on the board of one of Ukraine's largest natural gas companies as a 'ceremonial figure' with a 'powerful name,' according to people familiar with his role at the company.
During his time on the board of Burisma, Biden, the son of former Vice President Joe Biden, was regarded as a helpful non-executive director.
His firm received a total of $3.4million for an 18-month period beginning in April 2014.
Biden’s role at the firm has come under intense scrutiny following unsupported accusations by Donald Trump that Joe Biden improperly tried to help his son’s business interests in Ukraine.
Interviews with more than a dozen people, including executives and former prosecutors in Ukraine, paint a picture of a director who provided advice on legal issues, corporate finance and strategy during a five-year term on the board, which ended in April of this year.
Biden never visited Ukraine for company business during that time, according to three of the people.
They also said that his presence on the board didn’t protect the company from its most serious challenge: a series of criminal investigations launched by Ukrainian authorities against its owner, Mykola Zlochevsky, a multimillionaire former minister of ecology and natural resources.
The allegations concern tax violations, money-laundering and licences given to Burisma during the period where Zlochevsky was a minister.
Revelations in a whistleblower complaint that Trump and his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, pressed the Ukrainians to pursue investigations into Burisma and the role of Hunter Biden have sparked an impeachment inquiry by Democrats in the House of Representatives.
Trump faces allegations that he withheld U.S. military assistance for Ukraine to place pressure on Kiev to investigate his potential Democratic rival in next year’s U.S. presidential election.
Giuliani has alleged, without providing evidence, that Joe Biden pushed for the firing of Ukraine’s top prosecutor to end an investigation into Burisma and Zlochevsky in order to protect his son.
Hunter Biden, 49, has denied wrongdoing.
In a public statement on October 13, his lawyer George Mesires said: 'Despite extensive scrutiny, at no time has any law enforcement agency, either domestic or foreign, alleged that Hunter engaged in wrongdoing at any point during his five-year term.'
In an interview with ABC News aired Tuesday, Hunter Biden said in retrospect it may have been poor judgment to join Burisma’s board while his father was vice president, but added: 'Did I make a mistake based upon some ethical lapse? Absolutely not.'
Biden, in the interview added that he didn’t discuss his business dealings in Ukraine with his father, other than one brief exchange in which his father told him 'I hope you know what you’re doing.'
