Hunter Biden’s former business parter will face sentencing in a fraud case after a federal appeals court on Wednesday reinstated his conviction.
Devon Archer, a longtime business associate of Joe Biden’s son, was convicted in June, 2018 on charges related to his involvement in a scheme to defraud a Native American tribe.
The defendants, including Archer, are accused of pressuring the Wakpamni Lake Community Association, an affiliate of the Oglala Sioux Tribe to issue $60 million in economic-development bonds which the defendants then used for their own purposes, such as investing in their own businesses instead of investing it back into the tribe.
After his conviction, a federal judge in New York overturned Archer’s conviction later that year, saying the evidence was insufficient to prove that Archer was aware of the multi-million dollar bond fraud scheme.
The three-judge panel of the New York-based 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated Archer’s conviction on Wednesday, ruling that the lower court “abused its discretion in vacating the judgment and granting a new trial” and stating that Archer “knew at least the general nature and extent of the scheme and intended to bring about its success.”
Archer is scheduled to be sentenced on January 21.
Archer worked with Hunter Biden on various business ventures, including serving with the Democratic presidential nominee’s son on the board of a Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings.
Hunter Biden was appointed to Burisma’s board in 2014 while his father was vice president and resigned from the board in April of last year after his lucrative position on the board drew scrutiny.
In spring, 2016, Biden called on Ukraine to fire the prosecutor who had been investigating the energy company paying his son. The vice president threatened to withdraw $1 billion in U.S. military aid to Ukraine if the country did not fire the prosecutor, who was accused by the State Department and U.S. allies in Europe of being soft on corruption.
