© Associated PressDr. Chi Ping Patrick Ho, former Hong Kong home secretary and deputy chairman of an NGO funded by CEFC China Energy. Ho claims Hunter Biden 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.
Judge Maryellen Noreika
Noreika wanted more detail:
Noreika: "Who is that payment received from, was that the law firm?"Sensing danger, Hunter's lawyer Chris Clark stepped in at this point:
Hunter: "Received from Patrick Ho, Your Honor."
Noreika: "Mr. Ho himself?"
Hunter: "Yes."
Hunter: "I believe that's the case, but I don't know that for a fact."
Noreika: "Were you doing legal work for him and apart from the law firm?"
Hunter: "Yes, Your Honor. Well -."
Clark: "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."
© GettyCEFC paid Hunter a total of $7.2 million between March 2017 and March 2018.
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's letter was sent days after President Biden's brother Jim Biden testified to the impeachment inquiry about telling the FBI that CEFC chairman Ye Jianming was a "protege" of China's President Xi Jinping, a statement that was not welcomed in Beijing, according to Ho's friend, who said Xi and Ye have "no relations."
Ye was arrested in China in February 2018 at the direct orders of Xi, according to Chinese news agency Caixin. He has not been heard from since.
Hong Kong has been a Special Administrative Region of China since 1997 and is subject to increasing control from Beijing.
CEFC paid Hunter a total of $7.2 million between March 2017 and March 2018. Ye also gave Hunter a 3.16-carat diamond in February 2017, along with a grading report that listed it as a "round brilliant" of Grade F with prime "VS2" clarity and "excellent" cut, putting its estimated value at $80,000, which also was the price claimed by the divorce attorney for Hunter's ex-wife Kathleen. Photographs of the stunning stone and grading report appear on Hunter's laptop.
Ye Jianming, chairman of Chinese energy conglomerate CEFC, gave Hunter Biden a 3.16-carat diamond estimated to be worth $80,000.
The Ho-Hunter attorney engagement agreement stipulated: "Attorney will perform the legal services called for under this agreement, keep Client informed of progress and developments, and respond promptly to Client's inquiries and communications."
Legal services included "conferences, court sessions, depositions preparation and participation; correspondence and legal documents review and preparation; legal research; and telephone conversations ...
"If at the conclusion of this agreement, the total amount of Attorney fees and costs is less than that of the retainer sum, the remaining amount will be reimbursed to the client."
Ho's letter was emailed by CEFC's Mervyn Yan to Hunter, Jim Biden and Jim's wife, Sara, on October 10, 2017, Ziegler testified. Jim testified that he "didn't know" if Hunter was representing Ho.
Ho headed up CEFC's nonprofit arm, a think tank also called CEFC, which was granted "special consultative status" by the United Nations.
Reader Comments
You know, Dr. Patrick could stand to miss a few meals, so maybe that money isn't really a life a death situation...