Joe Biden’s administration just released a report that may have backfired on the Democrat president’s family after it flagged the art industry for having a big problem with corruption and influence peddling.
The Biden admin released a major report on corruption titled: “United States Strategy on Countering Corruption.”
The report is described as a first step to identify where “government officials abuse public power for private gain.”
Accoroding to the report, shady art deals are used to “appropriate illicit wealth.”
However, Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, recently raised ethics concerns after suddenly announcing he is an “artist” who is selling his “artworks” for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
On July 2, 2021, a painting created by Pablo Picasso in 1919 sold, at an auction in Massachusetts, for $150,000.
Days later, it was revealed that paintings created by Hunter Biden are being sold for as much as $500,000.
Allegations of influence peddling ramped up with it emerged the White House was handling the transactions between Hunter and the “anonymous investors” who were buying his “art.”
“When government officials abuse public power for private gain, they do more than simply appropriate illicit wealth,” the report says.
“Corruption robs citizens of equal access to vital services, denying the right to quality healthcare, public safety, and education.
“It degrades the business environment, subverts economic opportunity, and exacerbates inequality.
“It often contributes to human rights violations and abuses, and can drive migration.
“As a fundamental threat to the rule of law, corruption hollows out institutions, corrodes public trust, and fuels popular cynicism toward effective, accountable governance.
“Moreover, the impacts of corruption frequently reverberate far beyond the immediate environment in which the acts take place. In today’s globalized world, corrupt actors bribe across borders, harness the international financial system to stash illicit wealth abroad, and abuse democratic institutions to advance anti-democratic aims.
“Emerging research and major journalistic exposés have documented the extent to which legal and regulatory deficiencies in the developed world offer corrupt actors the means to offshore and launder illicit wealth.
“This dynamic in turn strengthens the hand of those autocratic leaders whose rule is predicated on the ability to co-opt and reward elites.
“On June 3, 2021, President Biden established the fight against corruption as a core national security interest of the United States.”
Sounds good until you read the report and discover Biden thinks the ‘art and antiquities’ market is a key player in this corruption and abuse of power.
Did they forget about Hunter’s overpriced $500,000 paintings he is selling to anonymous (wink wink) “investors”?
Have they no shame? Are they really this clueless and incompetent?
Biden’s report on corruption says:
“Art and antiquities markets: The AML Act mandates that the Treasury conduct a study of the facilitation of money laundering, terrorism finance, and other illicit financial dealings through the trade in works of art, which will be sent to the Congress by the end of 2021.
“The markets for art and antiquities—and the market participants who facilitate transactions—are especially vulnerable to a range of financial crimes.
“Built-in opacity, lack of stable and predictable pricing, and inherent cross-border transportability of goods sold, make the market optimal for illicit value transfer, sanctions evasion, and corruption.
“In September 2021, FinCEN issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) to solicit public comment on questions related to Section 6110 of the AML Act, which amends the Bank Secrecy Act by including as a type of financial institution a person engaged in the trade of antiquities.”
