According to Republican lawmakers, Mykola Zlochevsky, a former Ukrainian minister and founder of Burisma Holdings, allegedly paid President Joe Biden $5 million and used two audio recordings of his encounters with Biden as collateral to secure the scheme.
Zlochevsky’s current whereabouts are unknown.
Some speculate he is in Monaco, where he reportedly fled Ukraine in 2019 on suspicion of embezzlement. According to an Al Jazeera investigation, he acquired Cypriot citizenship between 2017 and 2019.
In 2002, Zlochevsky founded Burisma, which reportedly changed hands in 2011 to a Cypriot foreign investment fund.
According to the Guardian, Zlotshevsky was Ukraine’s minister of Ecology and Natural Resources from 2010 to 2012 and Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council from April 2012 to February 2014.
As the Minister of Ecology, some accuse Zlotshevsky of handing out gas permits to his friends.
2016 Zlochevski was suspected of money laundering and public corruption linked to Burisma. Prosecutor Victor Shokin investigated the case before closing it under pressure from then-Vice President Joe Biden, who threatened to withhold a billion dollars in US aid to Ukraine if the Ukrainian government did not fire Shokin.
Biden praised the dismissal of Shokin in 2018.
In 2016, Hunter Biden and his partner Devon Archer were on the board of Burisma, where Hunter Biden earned $83,000 per month as a board member.
On Monday (June 12), Grassley announced that a foreigner paid President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden $5 million each and kept 17 audio recordings of their conversations as an “insurance policy” to keep the schemes going.
