‘Favor for a Friend’: Hunter Biden’s Ex-Business Partner Reveals Why He Managed Joe’s Personal Finances Free of Charge

Hunter Biden’s former business partner and accountant Eric Schwerin managed Joe Biden’s personal finances free of charge while the elder Biden was serving as vice president and frequently visited the White House to discuss related issues.

Schwerin testified before the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees in January about his knowledge of Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings and the financial services he provided for Joe Biden, according to a newly released transcript of his testimony.

“I don’t recall who thought of the suggestion, whether it was myself or Hunter or the Vice President, but there was a discussion that I would be a good person to do that. I had sort of handled — I’d done that with Hunter personally but also with our business and had that skill set, and the Vice President had known me for 10 years personally and I think trusted me. So that was how it originated,” Schwerin said of how the arrangement began. He started working for Joe Biden around 2009, the start of Biden’s vice presidency.

Schwerin oversaw Joe Biden’s recurring bill payments, annual tax preparations, and financial disclosures. He had signing authority for a personal bank account Joe Biden had at SunTrust bank and online access to two other discretionary bank accounts.

At the same time, Schwerin managed some of Hunter Biden’s personal and corporate bank accounts, and was a partner in Hunter’s strategic advisory firm Rosemont Seneca Partners. No discussions ever took place over whether Schwerin would be paid for the financial services he conducted for Joe Biden, Schwerin testified, explaining that he helped out the vice president as a favor to Hunter Biden, who he had known since they worked together in the Commerce Department under President Bill Clinton.

“Well, I mean, I looked at it as doing a favor for a friend, and this was very different from the work that we did on a daily basis with Rosemont Seneca Advisors, and as I said, it didn’t take that much time. The goal was to set it up in a way where it didn’t take either him or myself very much time at all if it was being run properly,” Schwerin said.

“No more than, I think, Hunter saying to me, look — or to his dad — Eric did a good job helping me set this up, so I would recommend that, you know, we do — he do the same for you,” Schwerin added.

According to Schwerin, the Bidens never expressed concern that Schwerin’s pro bono work for Joe Biden might create the appearance of a conflict of interest given that he was actively involved at the time in selling advice about how to navigate policy coming out of the Obama administration as part of his work with Hunter at Rosemont Seneca Partners.

White House visitor logs from the Obama administration indicate Schwerin visited the White House roughly 30 times during Biden’s vice presidency. Most of those visits happened when Joe Biden needed help with his finances and paying his bills, Schwerin recalled.

“I don’t know — a lot of those visits, as far as I’m concerned, were — and remember — were related to helping the Vice President with his finances. So there were times I would go over there and sit down with him, particularly as we — on these annual bases for these meetings, but also, a lot of it was to go pick up these bills,” he said.

In addition, Schwerin helped “friends” of his get access to the White House and Naval Observatory for social events by coordinating with Joe Biden’s staff. Schwerin also helped people get White House tours. He could not recall if he helped clients get similar access to the Obama administration.

The Obama administration appointed Schwerin in 2015 to the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad. Hunter Biden’s art patron Elizabeth Naftali was appointed by the Biden administration to the same commission in July 2022.

Schwerin helped Joe Biden with his finances from 2009 through 2017, the year Biden’s vice presidency ended. He accessed Joe Biden’s corporate account for a period of time in 2017 until he stopped helping out with finances.

Hunter Biden and Schwerin had a falling out in 2017, when Hunter Biden was struggling with drug addiction and his divorce from ex-wife Kathleen Buhle, the mother of his three eldest children. Schwerin and Biden’s financial separation was finalized in 2019 and the pair have not stayed in touch.

When Hunter Biden and Schwerin stopped doing business together, Hunter Biden had shifted his focus to Chinese and Romanian business dealings instead of his work for Rosemont Seneca Partners, the investment firm he and Schwerin ran together.

The testimony from Schwerin is part of the House GOP’s impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden focusing on his apparent role in his family’s foreign business dealings. Schwerin said in his opening statement he did not believe Joe Biden had any involvement with any of his son’s clients.

“I cannot recall any requests for Vice President Biden to take any official action on behalf of any of Hunter’s clients or his business deals, foreign or domestic. In fact, I am not aware of any role that Vice President Biden, as a public official or a private citizen, had in any of Hunter’s business activities — none,” Schwerin asserted.

However, Schwerin himself was not a participant in Hunter Biden’s lucrative foreign business dealings primarily involving Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings, Chinese infrastructure conglomerate CEFC, and Romanian oligarch Gabriel Popoviciu. Those business dealings are a central focus of the impeachment inquiry.

Burisma, CEFC and Popoviciu paid Hunter Biden between roughly $6-8 million in total, according to IRS whistleblower Joseph Ziegler, bank records, and Hunter Biden’s federal tax indictment. Hunter Biden testified last month and confirmed his father met multiple foreign business partners, while repeatedly insisting his father did not play any role in his business dealings.

In addition, the financial relationship between Joe Biden and his brother James is an aspect of the impeachment inquiry. James Biden and his wife Sara wrote a check to Joe Biden for $40,000 in 2017 with funds originating from CEFC. The next year, the paid wrote Joe Biden a $200,000 check with money provided by distressed healthcare company Americore.

Both checks are classified as loan repayments. However, James Biden testified he does not have documentation of the loans. Schwerin could not recall any loans between Joe Biden and his brother, based on his knowledge of Joe Biden’s finances through 2017. He did not rule out the possibility that he might not have been privy to loans at some point in 2017.