Joe Biden has long had an interest in Ukraine even before Burisma. Joe Biden has a pal in Delaware who is a Ukrainian American, millionaire car magnate John Hynansky. Hynansky owns three car dealerships in Ukraine. Over the course of Biden’s career, Hynansky has contributed $100,000 dollars and Hymamsky’s son Michael lent Joe Biden his private jet when he was still just a US Senator. The relationship has been mutually beneficial.
During Biden’s time as vice president, he was Obama’s point man in Ukraine. During that time, Hynansky was able to secure loans from U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation, or OPIC. The loans were given just one year after Hynansky contributed $33,000 dollars to the Obama/Biden ticket, mostly to the Obama Victory Fund. Those loans raise suspicions because they were to aid Hynansky’s car dealerships in Ukraine. That’s because his car dealerships sell no American cars and the loans are supposed to be helping American companies sell their goods overseas. He was also excused from paying any of the principal on the loans totaling $22.5 million for three years.
Since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, Biden has given Ukraine billions to restore war-torn regions of Ukraine that include areas where Hynansky has car dealerships. This could be troublesome as they can show a conflict of interest on Biden’s part. When Joe’s brother James overextended himself in buying a compound in Florida, it was Hynansky that came through with loans totaling $900,000 dollars.
The Bidens sold the waterfront house in 2018, and Hynansky released his lien on the property. However, Hynansky did not acknowledge full payment and satisfaction of the loans, according to the details laid out in documents recorded in Collier County, Fla.
In August 2021, Hynansky secured a $24 million loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to expand its Ukraine operations into electric vehicles, including building new Renault and Volvo dealerships in Lviv. The U.S. is a founding member of EBRD and provides 10% of its capital. The Biden administration has been pushing such “green” deals.
VISIT OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL“In the near future, we intend to increase our presence on the Ukrainian market,” Hynansky’s top official in Ukraine, Petro Rondiak, said at the time.
Though Biden is silent about his actions in Ukraine as they concern Hynansky and his businesses there, he has repeatedly denied that his son’s Burisma dealings influenced his official actions in Ukraine — which included handing over more than $50 million in U.S. support to assist the Ukrainian energy industry, an aid package Biden personally announced in Kiev the month before Burisma hired his son in 2014.
Republicans are investigating whether those funds were intended to help his son’s business interests in Ukraine. Less explored is whether U.S. tax money has also been used to protect or boost Hynansky’s Ukrainian investments.
Paul Kamenar, counsel to the National Legal and Policy Center, a Washington watchdog group. said that in dealing with Ukraine, Biden increasingly is drawing suspicion he may be putting his own political fortunes ahead of the national interest.
Many of Hynansky’s dealerships ‒ organized under the Winner Group Ukraine ‒ are located around the Kiev airport. Though the American head of Winner Group Ukraine fled the country after Russia’s invasion, the dealerships are still “operational,” according to a spokesperson at Hynansky’s headquarters in Delaware. All told, his Ukrainian subsidiary controls some 55 dealerships and service centers employing more than 800 workers.
Thanks to the shipment of U.S. weaponry ‒ including Stinger missiles, howitzers, and Abrams tanks ‒ properties around Kiev airport are now secure enough that Biden was able to use the train station just 19 miles away to visit Zelensky during February’s anniversary of the invasion. And though Boryspil International Airport is still closed, Ukrainian forces have retaken strategically important suburbs of Kiev near the airport.
Since taking control of the House, Republicans have threatened to curb aid to Ukraine and audit the massive funds the Biden administration and the Democratic-controlled Congress have funneled there.
