Exclusive: Emails Show Devon Archer Manages Wife’s Stake in BHR Partners

devon Archer
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

Devon Archer facilitates and manages his wife’s stake in a Chinese state-backed investment fund, BHR Partners, despite leaving the board in 2016 and conveying his stake to her in 2017, according to emails.

Archer, who is Hunter Biden’s best friend in business, conveyed his ten percent share of BHR Partners to Krista Archer in 2017 through a carveout entity via an “Equity Transfer Agreement,” Breitbart News exclusively reported Sunday.

Although Krista Archer now controls her husband’s stake in BHR Partners, Devon Archer is the family member that primarily manages the family’s stake in the Chinese investment fund, according to recent emails exclusively obtained from Marco Polo.

In March 2023, BHR Partners executive Heng-Yin Zhang emailed Devon Archer about restricting board seats, a process that involves Krista Archer. But instead of emailing Mrs. Archer, Zhang emailed Mr. Archer and sought input on changing the board’s composition. The subject line of Zhang’s email is “Explanation on the Proposed Amendment of the Number of the Directors of the Board.”

The email to Devon Archer reads:

Hi Devon,

Hope all is well. The proposed equity transfer is underway and we expect a completed transaction after the registration work is done with the Shanghai filing bureau. We will get Alex’s name off as soon as possible.

In the meantime, the management team would like to propose a few admendments regarding the struture of the board of directors as a result of the shareholder change. Please refer to the attachement for details. In particular, the management team would like to change the number of board seats from 11 to 7 now that the company has one less shareholder, i.e. Bohai Fund. As a result, 2 board seats shall be assigned to Ulysses, Thornton, and Skaneateles collectively. Since Alex will be taken off, Ulysses is no longer required to appoint a replacement. If you agree with not appointing any director to the board on behalf of Ulysses, we will proceed with our filing work as is. Regardless of the board composition, you will be well informed and assisted on the board level as usual.

In order to complete the amendments of the company’s bylaws, later we will send you the documents neede for signing. Thank you in advance for your kind help and understanding.

Warm regards,

Heng-yin

Archer replied the same day: “I spoke to Krista Archer Sounds good to Ulysses. Thank you.”

Zhang sent a second email on February 12, 2023, to Devon Archer about KYC Requirements, which are four pieces of identifying information about a client, including name, date of birth, address, and identification number.

Zhang emailed about submitting KYC requirements regarding funds associated with an offshore Cayman bank account:

Hi Devon,Sorry to trouble you with another email, but our Cayman laywer has repeatedly requested the KYC materials that we previously mentioned to you. To avoid breaching Cayman laws and our relavant business entities being dissolved, could you please provide the documents requested? Many thanks for your kind help.

“For Ulysses Diversified, Inc. and any of its 10% or more shareholder – a soft copy of the current [a] Register of Directors and Register of Members (or equivalent), and [b] Memorandum and Articles of Association (where there is more than 1 class of shares).”

Warm regards,
Hengyin

Again, Devon replied the same day: “Thanks Heng-Yin. The Sole Director, President and shareholder is Dr. Krista Archer. I’ll get you docs when you back to NY tomorrow from Krista.”

In 2022, Devon Archer needed his wife to complete a form permitting BHR Partners to complete an equity transfer to a third party. Zhang emailed Devon Archer on August 25, 2022, to facilitate Krista Archer’s legally required permission:

To follow up on our call last week, please see the attached documents regarding the explanation for the proposed Bohai Fund’s share transfer. To complete this transaction, we kindly ask you to execute signing of the attached Content Letter. Please email us a scanned copy after signing and send us the signed original document via courier to our Beijing office at the following address:

Attn: Hengyin Zhang
Phone No. +86 185 0005 3355
3101, Tower 2, China Central Place
79 Jianguo Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100025
China

Thank you for your kind help!

Hengyin

Devon Archer forwarded the message to Kristi Archer on September 9, requesting she sign the attached document and reply to their BHR Partners:

When you have a chance can you sign these and send back to; [redacted]

Krista Archer replied from her work email: “there are no attachments.”

The email exchanges represent a few of many email threads between Mr. and Mrs. Archer and their BHR Partners associations that Breitbart News obtained.

Krista Archer denied in July any involvement in her husbands business. “I have no idea what he did in his business,” Krista Archer told the Daily Mail in July. ‘I’m a doctor, I go to work and mind my own business.”

The revelations come just one week after Devon Archer testified before lawmakers about BHR Partners, a fund in which the Archer family has an ongoing interest.

Mr. Archer told investigators he left the board of BHR Partners May 31, 2016, according to his congressional testimony.

Devon Archer appears to not have told investigators about his family’s stake in BHR Partners. Such information could be relevant to the congressional probe into the Biden family.

Devon Archer’s business relationship with his wife is not the only suspicious association behind the scenes regarding BHR Partners. Breitbart News first reported in April that Hunter Biden’s lawyer, Kevin Morris, took control of Hunter Biden’s stake ten percent stake in BHR Partners through Skaneateles, LLC, an entity originally created by Hunter Biden.

Devon Archer and Christa Archer on September 9, 2010, in New York City. (Photo by AMBER DE VOS/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)

Hunter Biden allegedly divested from BHR Partners after increased pressure due to a conflict of interest upon President Joe Biden assuming the White House. Hunter Biden’s lawyer told the New York Times in the fall of 2021 that his client “no longer holds any interest, directly or indirectly, in either BHR or Skaneateles.”

The Bank of China, a state-owned bank, controls BHR Partners. The fund claims it maintains 22 billion Chinese Yuan (RMB) in various portfolio companies, translating to more than three billion USD. It reports investments in Didi Chuxing, a Chinese technology group, CATL, a lithium-ion manufacturer, Megvii, a deep-learning software developer, and a biotechnology company, Insilico Medicine.

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

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