Meet the Ukrainian Oligarch Who Allegedly Paid Joe Biden $5 Million

Mykola Zlochevsky, a former Ukrainian minister and founder of Burisma Holdings, allegedly paid President Joe Biden $5 million and possesses two audio records as insurance to secure the pay-for-play scheme, according to Republican lawmakers.

Zlochevsky’s whereabouts today are unknown. Some speculate he is in Monaco, where he reportedly fled in 2019, escaping Ukraine after being suspected of embezzlement. He reportedly bought Cypriot citizenship between 2017 and 2019, according to an investigation by Al Jazeera.

In 2002, Zlochevsky co-founded Burisma, which allegedly changed owners in 2011 to an offshore Cypriot investment fund. According to the Guardian, from 2010 to 2012, Zlochevsky was Ukraine’s Ecology and Natural Resources Minister and was Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council from April 2012 through February 2014. As the environment minister, some accuse Zlochevsky of handing out gas licenses to his cronies, the British daily newspaper reported.

In 2016, Zlochevsky was under suspicion of money laundering and public corruption related to Burisma. Prosecutor Victor Shokin investigated the case before his termination due to pressure applied by then-Vice President Joe Biden, who threatened to withhold $1 billion in U.S. aid from Ukraine if the Ukrainian government did not fire Shokin. Joe Biden bragged about the firing in 2018.

In late 2013 and into 2014, mass protests erupted in Kyiv, Ukraine, demanding integration into western economies and an end to systemic corruption that had plagued the country. At least 82 people were killed during the protests, which culminated on Feb. 21 when Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych abdicated by fleeing the country. Less than two months later, over the span of only 28 days, significant events involving the Bidens unfolded.

On April 16, 2014, Vice President Biden met with his son’s business partner, Devon Archer, at the White House. Five days later, Vice President Biden visited Ukraine, and he soon after was described in the press as the “public face of the administration’s handling of Ukraine.” The day after his visit, on April 22, Archer joined the board of Burisma. Six days later, on April 28, British officials seized $23 million from the London bank accounts of Burisma’s owner, Mykola Zlochevsky. Fourteen days later, on May 12, Hunter Biden joined the board of Burisma, and over the course of the next several years, Hunter Biden and Devon Archer were paid millions of dollars from a corrupt Ukrainian oligarch for their participation on the board.

The 2014 protests in Kyiv came to be known as the Revolution of Dignity — a revolution against corruption in Ukraine. Following that revolution, Ukrainian political figures were desperate for U.S. support. Zlochevsky would have made sure relevant Ukrainian officials were well aware of Hunter’s appointment to Burisma’s board as leverage. Hunter Biden’s position on the board created an immediate potential conflict of interest that would prove to be problematic for both U.S. and Ukrainian officials and would affect the implementation of Ukraine policy.

On Monday, Grassley announced a foreign national allegedly paid President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden $5 million each and kept 17 audio recordings of his conversations of them as an “insurance policy.”

Grassley said the bombshell allegation originated from an FBI informant document, FD-1023. Last week, Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), and Nancy Mace (R-SC) said the foreign national identified in the FD-1023 form is Zlochevsky.

Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.