What Hunter Biden's emails reveal about his dealings in Delaware, investment in electric car maker

Editor's note: Hunter Biden is scheduled to appear in federal court Wednesday in Delaware.

It is the latest of at least three years of controversy surrounding the son of the president and his businesses, much of it caused by revelations uncovered from a laptop leaked to the FBI and to Trump political operatives that had its origin at a Wilmington computer repair shop.

Those revelations focused on his international deals. But an analysis of his emails gives a glimpse of Hunter Biden’s businesses with a significant presence in his home state a decade ago.

This is the first of three stories Delaware Online/The News Journal will publish in the coming days examining Hunter Biden’s emails and what they reveal about his Delaware business ties.

During the wake of the Great Recession, government officials promised to remake Delaware’s battered economy by subsidizing a wave of greentech companies.

By 2010, Hunter Biden emerged as a common thread among many of the companies seeking government help, according to an analysis of emails that were leaked by a Wilmington computer repairman in 2020 from a hard drive that appeared to come from Hunter Biden’s personal laptop.

The politically explosive leak to an associate of then-President Donald Trump resulted in a string of news stories and public scrutiny largely around Hunter Biden’s foreign business deals.

Until now, little attention had been paid to Hunter Biden’s dealings in Delaware.

But the emails show how Hunter Biden served as a broker for several companies seeking incentives locally, connecting them with officials from the state and from the University of Delaware.

'Now the world can see': Hunter Biden goes to court as fight continues between GOP and White House

For at least one other company – the now-defunct electric car maker Fisker Automotive – Hunter Biden’s own firm was an early investor.

And for others, including Bloom Energy, Hunter Biden possessed early knowledge of the company and its people, even as there is no direct evidence in the emails that he played roles in their deals with the state.

With Bloom, Hunter Biden met with an official from the little-known alternative energy company more than a year before it struck its controversial Delaware deal. Months after the meeting, he wrote about discussions to set up an assembly plant for an unnamed “clean tech” company at the location of Bloom’s eventual Delaware home.

In all, the emails indicate that Hunter Biden – and his investment and advisory firm, Rosemont Seneca Partners – had links to the companies and business figures involved in several of Delaware’s most ambitious economic development efforts in past years.

Some of those same business figures also served as political donors to the Bidens.

Given the prominence of the Biden name in Delaware, the revelations spark questions of whether state officials within the administration of then-Gov. Jack Markell favored companies linked to Hunter Biden.

Jessica Tillipman, a professor of government contracts law at George Washington University, said the revelations, while “ugly,” don’t appear to be violations of law. Still, they do carry the appearance of favoritism, she said.

“Most people in politics that care about ethics … take pains to avoid this situation,” said Tillipman, who also serves as her university’s assistant dean for Government Procurement Law Studies. “But Hunter Biden doesn’t seem like most people.”

Beyond the Bidens, the emails highlight examples of cozy relationships among Delaware power brokers during a period of prolific subsidy efforts – a manner of business that critics of the so-called Delaware Way have long complained has guided state policy.

For Hunter Biden, state officials appeared eager to prioritize his clients’ projects, according to his emails.

In one message, a staffer at the Delaware Economic Development Office promised to “pull out the stops” for two of Hunter Biden’s client companies, called DuCool and Aqua Sciences, as they considered locating in Delaware.

In another, the development office’s then-director Alan Levin sought to boost prospects for a green energy venture promoted by Hunter Biden by claiming it came from the “vice president’s office” – a seemingly inaccurate statement, according to the emails.

The venture – owned by Wade Randlett, a prominent political donor and former member of the Obama presidential transition team – sought to place a grab bag of alternative energy infrastructure at the site of the Delaware City refinery. Ultimately, it failed, but not before months of aid to the venture from hopeful Delaware officials, including Levin.

Asked recently why he linked the project to then-Vice President Joe Biden, Levin pointed to the economic crisis raging in Delaware in 2010, stating “we were coming out of the worst recession since the Great Depression.”

“If the mention of the VP’s Office in the email was authentic, it was probably an effort by me to add credibility to the venture again because I wanted as many jobs created as possible,” Levin said in an email.

Levin further said there was never “any pressure brought” onto his office to give preferential treatment to companies linked to the Bidens.

Still, when doing business, Hunter Biden’s clients and colleagues made certain to note his relationships with government officials.

In one case, Randlett introduced his green energy venture to Markell by emphasizing their ”mutual friend,” Hunter Biden.

In another, Rosemont Seneca employee Michael Muldoon advertised the firm’s connections to Delaware officials in a draft proposal to a potential client.

“We’re working closely with a team at the University of Delaware, in coordination with businesses and the State government, to assist them in finding clean tech companies to populate a technology park … at the site of an old Chrysler plant,” the draft proposal stated.

Muldoon sent the draft to Hunter Biden in a November 2010 email, in which he described the University of Delaware as one of Rosemont Seneca’s “strategic partners.”

Upon forwarding it to Hunter Biden, Muldoon said he “Made it for $15k for introductions” to the strategic partners. It was an apparent reference to Rosemont Seneca’s fees for linking companies to the University of Delaware.

“Let me know if that sounds good to you and I’ll get it out the door,” Muldoon said in the email to Hunter Biden.

Hunter Biden then asked if the proposal would “include success fees and equity,” according to the emails.

Muldoon answered affirmatively in a reply, saying that he added “the equity and % pieces” on a “project-by-project basis.”

Delaware pins hope to Fisker

Delaware’s economy in 2010 was suffering from a string of mass layoffs, some of which occurred before the national economic downturn.

They came from the reshuffling of banks, from the downsizing of DuPont’s footprint in the state, and from the closures of the Delaware City refinery and two auto plants.

Delaware lawmakers and other government officials responded with a plan to steer the state’s job base away from a reliance on the chemical industry and legacy manufacturing.

The two shuttered auto plants were key to the plans.

At the former Chrysler plant in Newark, which was referenced in Muldoon’s email, the state had plans to build a high-tech business hub that could be populated largely with greentech companies.

Ten miles to the east at a vacant General Motors car factory, state officials pinned their hopes on just a single company, in which Hunter Biden was an investor.

In April 2010, the Markell Administration announced a $22-million award to Fisker Automotive to build a line of plug-in hybrid vehicles at the former GM auto plant, near Newport, Delaware.

The state subsidy – which included a loan and a grant – added to investments in Fisker previously made by the federal government, and by Hunter Biden’s own firm.

In October 2009, then-Vice President Joe Biden announced that the U.S. Department of Energy had approved an application for a massive federal loan to Fisker that would give the electric vehicle company access to more than a half-billion dollars – so long as it met production goals.

The announcement was made in front of crowds of autoworkers and lawmakers during a ceremony at the shuttered GM plant – now home to an Amazon distribution center. There, Biden said the Fisker loan would allow “some of the best workers in the world to reclaim their jobs.”

“This is seed money that will return back to the American consumer in billions and billions and billions of dollars in good new jobs,” Biden said then.

Two months later in December 2010, Hunter Biden indicated that his company’s “fund” was also a Fisker investor.

He made the comment in an email, in which he linked Wayne Kimmel, a Philadelphia money manager, to Rosemont Seneca’s investment research into Fisker’s operations.

“It’s our fund that's in the (Fisker) deal,” he said in the email to Kimmel. “Cool company, right.”

In a separate email, a Rosemont partner described Kimmel and Hunter Biden as “old friends.” who previously had worked together through Kimmel’s company, ETF Venture Funds.

Kimmel did not respond to requests to comment.

Those within Hunter Biden’s circle were not alone in their hope for Fisker’s broad success at the time. Across Delaware, many saw the company’s presence in the state as the first positive economic signal after a period of steady recessionary decline.

Those hopes were boosted through 2010 as Fisker finalized its state and federal awards and began to renovate the former GM auto plant to fit its production needs.

In a publicity move in May of that year, Fisker even brought its luxury sports sedan, named the Karma, to a local Wilmington Jaguar dealer for a public “unveiling.”

The following month, a federal bankruptcy judge approved the sale of the former GM plant – commonly called the Boxwood plant – to Fisker.

Weeks later, Barry Yerger, an investment banker at Barley Mill Asset Management, emailed Hunter Biden to express “sincere thanks for any and all help provided concerning Fisker, particularly intro to Wayne.”

“Also, congrats to all on the finalization of the Boxwood Plant transfer,” Yerger said, referencing the sale of the former GM property to Fisker.

Yerger declined to comment for this story, and so it is unclear who all he was congratulating on the sale of the property – and why.

By 2011, the initial excitement around Fisker was fading after the company missed production milestones tied to its federal debt, causing the Department of Energy to suspend additional disbursements from the loan. The following year, the situation grew worse when Fisker’s battery supplier filed for bankruptcy.

By early 2013, the company was unable to pay its debts, prompting its board of directors to consider selling off the rights to the Department of Energy loan, according to allegations from a subsequent false claims act lawsuit.

Then, in April of that year, Fisker missed a $10 million payment on the federal loan.

The following November, Fisker itself declared bankruptcy, ending its tenure in Delaware before ever producing a vehicle there.

Four years later, Fisker CEO Henrik Fisker pinned the company’s failure to the bankruptcy of his battery supplier, and to his failure to subsequently raise more money.

"If we would have got the money (from additional investors), we would have been (in Delaware) today as the original company," he said in an interview with The News Journal in 2017.

Delaware: Two companies grow from Fisker's ashes

In court documents announcing Fisker’s bankruptcy, Hunter Biden was listed individually among the company’s creditors, as were three investment funds bearing the Rosemont name and listed addresses that matched that of Rosemont Seneca Partners.

Also among Fisker’s investors – though not a creditor – was the politically connected venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Fisker’s bankruptcy reportedly caused deep losses for the company that had backed several other green energy ventures at the time, including Bloom Energy.

Fisker’s demise was also a reputational blow to the investment company, whose managing partner Raymond Lane served as Fisker’s board chairman at the time.

Kleiner Perkins’ major political connections came through former Vice President Al Gore, who served then as a senior partner for the company, as well as through John Doerr, another partner at the firm and a major Democratic Party donor.

Doerr also sat on President Barack Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board, which was tasked then with advising the president on “plans for economic recovery,” according to a White House statement published in February 2009.

Ultimately, the Administration directed $90 billion toward clean energy investments in 2009, according to a White House analysis published near the end of Obama’s second term.

‘Chinese investors?’

While the loss of Fisker amounted to another blow to Delaware’s manufacturing economy, some saw a potential opportunity.

Levin, the state’s then-economic development director, said Hunter Biden called Markell following the bankruptcy to link the governor with “Chinese investors” interested in acquiring the auto plant.

In response, the governor’s team arranged a tour. Hunter Biden later canceled it, Levin said.

Levin said he never was told the name of the investors, so it is unclear whether they reemerged later.

But, during Fisker’s subsequent bankruptcy process, two Chinese firms played key roles in divvying up the company’s assets and liabilities.

In October 2013, one month before the bankruptcy filing, the federal government held an auction for Fisker’s $169 million in outstanding debt from the Department of Energy loan.

At the time, the federal government was the company’s largest creditor. As such, it held the first lien on Fisker’s assets.

Delaware taxpayers held the third position, behind the federal government and the now-bankrupt Silicon Valley Bank.

During the live auction, only one company submitted a bid to purchase the returns on the nearly $170 million loan balance, according to a statement of facts released in the subsequent False Claims Act lawsuit.

That company, called Hybrid Technology, was a Delaware LLC controlled by the Hong Kong billionaire Richard Li, according to several news reports.

Its bid was a mere $25 million.

At the time, many believed the steep discount paid for the loan was an indication of Fisker’s financial trouble. But federal investigators would later say that Li’s company had rigged the auction, causing the debt to be sold for too low a price and cheating taxpayers out of millions of dollars.

In 2020, Hybrid Technology settled the claims, agreeing to pay the government $29 million.

During the months following the bankruptcy filing, Fisker’s hard assets also were auctioned. Included in those was the Newport auto plant property, valued then at upwards of $40 million.

Bidders at the auction included Hybrid Technology and Wanxiang America Inc. – an arm of China's then-largest auto parts manufacturer.

Wanxiang ultimately won the contest with a $149 million bid.  But the purchase left many in Delaware uncertain.

While Fisker had stated goals of restoring the Newport auto plant to an anchor of manufacturing jobs, Wanxiang’s plans were far less certain.

In June 2014, Levin told The News Journal that the Markell Administration was in discussions then with Wanxiang, but the company still hadn’t decided “what use of Boxwood would be in their corporate best interest.”

In apparent response to the uncertainty – and likely with an eye toward the next election – then-New Castle County Executive Thomas Gordon proposed that the county buy the site for $9.9 million.

His plan was to turn the facility into a distribution hub linked to an expanded Port of Wilmington.

Gordon assigned his No. 2, David Grimaldi, to carry out the plan, and in June 2014, Grimaldi announced the county’s intentions to Levin, according to emails obtained through an open records request.

But Levin rebuffed the idea in his emailed response, “strongly” urging the county “to wait until Wangxiang determines their interest.”

Grimaldi in response said the county and the state would have to “agree to disagree.”

“We will send the offer letter out to Wanxiang momentarily as there doesn’t seem to be a need for a meeting,” Grimaldi said in an email to Levin.

When recalling the events in a 2019 interview, Grimaldi said the county had hired a prominent land-use attorney to compose a proposed purchase agreement. Then, Grimaldi flew to Wanxiang's Chicago office to pitch the sale.

Wanxiang officials were receptive, Grimaldi said.

"But, when I got back, I got a strange email from them that said you guys in Delaware need to speak with one voice," he said. "It seems that there was somebody at the state who was pushing back on our transaction."

Grimaldi didn't want to speculate whether anyone might have been working against the county’s proposed purchase.

Markell did not respond to requests to comment for the stories in this series.

Ultimately, New Castle County never purchased the auto plant property, which sat empty until 2017. That year, Wanxjiang unceremoniously sold the 142-acre site to a local Delaware development company.

The property – once a pillar of the state's manufacturing sector – has since been rebuilt as an Amazon distribution hub.

When reached for comment for this story, Grimaldi expressed disappointment that the county’s plan didn’t pan out, noting there had been a proliferation of distribution center warehouses in Delaware in the years since the county tried to buy the former GM property.

“We didn’t know it at the time but we were at the cusp of a boom in distribution center real estate,” he said. “It was really the best time to do that.’

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Hunter Biden's emails show he served as broker with Delaware business