Biden told Yuri Luzhkov to ‘be good to my boy’ during call while VP: Hunter associate

WASHINGTON — Then-Vice President Joe Biden allegedly told Russian billionaire Yelena Baturina and her husband, ex-Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, to “be good to my boy” during a 2014 speaker phone conversation, according to a former Hunter Biden business associate who was interviewed Friday in the House impeachment inquiry.

Jason Galanis, a federal inmate who defrauded an American Indian tribe, said from his Alabama prison that on May 4, 2014, the sitting vice president called into a party in southern Brooklyn featuring his son, business partner Devon Archer and the Russian power couple.

“I was present when Hunter Biden called his father on a cell phone and put the call on speaker. Present for the call were Yelena Baturina, an investor in Rosemont projects, her husband Yuri Luzhkov, the former mayor of Moscow, and Devon Archer,” Galanis told congressional staff in testimony obtained by The Post.

“During the May 4th party, we were told to go to an area of the restaurant to gather because Hunter was going to call his father. Hunter called his father, said hello and ‘hold on, Pops,’ then put the call on speakerphone and said, ‘I am here with our friends I told you were coming to town, and we wanted to say hello.’

“The vice president said ‘hello’ and some pleasantries of ‘Hope you had safe travels,’ and then seemed like he wanted to bring the call to an end by saying, ‘OK then, you be good to my boy.’

“Hunter responded by saying, ‘Everything is good, and we are moving ahead.’ The vice president said something about ‘being helpful,’ and Hunter ended the call by saying that he was going to call his father later.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Galanis’ prison interview in Montgomery, Alabama — in which he also laid out new claims about Joe Biden’s alleged role in Chinese and Ukrainian business relationships.

The Post was able to find some corroboration of the convicted fraudster’s account.

An email from Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop indicates he was due to attend a “Birthday Party @ Romanoff Restaurant” at 4 p.m. on May 4, 2014.

A source told The Post that it was a birthday party for the daughter of Alex Kotlarsky, who is believed to have recruited Archer and Hunter Biden to join the board of Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings, which infamously paid the then-second son a salary of up to $1 million per year beginning in April 2014, the month before the gathering.

The Post has not been able to confirm with other witnesses the precise quotes attributed to Joe Biden at the Brooklyn party or confirm that he called.

Baturina, who was spared yet again Friday in a more than 500-name Russia sanctions list from the Biden administration, allegedly attended two dinners with then-Vice President Biden at Washington’s Cafe Milano restaurant.

Baturina was present for a 2014 dinner alongside Hunter’s Kazakhstani partners and the vice president, Archer told Congress in July testimony.

The precise date of that alleged gathering is unclear.

An eyewitness told The Post that Baturina and her husband, who has since died, also attended an April 16, 2015, dinner at Cafe Milano, which also included a Kazakhstani group and Burisma board advisor Vadym Pozharskyi of the Ukrainian energy company, who wrote a thank-you email to Hunter the next day for the opportunity to meet his father.

For reasons that remain unclear, Baturina transferred $3.5 million in February 2014 to a firm controlled by Hunter and his associate Devon Archer.

Archer told Congress in July that he wasn’t sure of the reason for the transfer, but bank records show that more than $2.75 million of it was transferred to another corporate entity, which Archer said that he and Hunter Biden jointly owned.

Archer testified that Baturina separately invested nearly $120 million with his company Rosemont Realty, with which Hunter Biden also was briefly associated.

‘I recall being stunned’

Galanis told House investigators that “I recall being stunned by this call — to actually hear the vice president of the United States speaking on the phone. It was clear to me this was a pre-arranged call with his father meant to impress the Russian investors that Hunter had access to his father and all the power and prestige of his position.”

“Before this call, Hunter sat next to Yelena Baturina at a table at this party, and I heard them speaking on business matters generally,” he recalled.

“A few days after this May 4th party, an email my lawyer provided to this committee shows that Devon had confirmed Ms. Baturina was committed to a ‘hard order’ of $10-20 million in a Burnham investment banking client,” referring to a company led by Archer and Hunter Biden.

Hunter, now 54, was vice chairman of the Burnham Financial Group, according to trial testimony and abandoned laptop emails. 

Court documents indicate the firm controlled Burnham Securities, which was the placement agent for the $60 million bond sale ripoff that defrauded a South Dakota tribe and landed Galanis, 53, with a 14-year prison sentence.

Hunter Biden was not charged in the case, but Archer was indicted in 2016 by the Obama-Biden Justice Department, convicted in 2018 and sentenced to one year in prison.

“Hunter and Devon will change your access forever,” Galanis wrote in October 2014 to associate Michelle Morton, who pleaded guilty to federal charges in the case in 2018, according to evidence produced in court proceedings.

New allegations about China, Ukraine

Galanis additionally presented new allegations to investigators about the Biden family’s relationships in China and Ukraine.

Burnham, the financial group led by Archer and Hunter Biden “reached an agreement with a Ukrainian oligarch — [Burisma owner] Mykola Zlochevsky — for a $120 million investment into a new Burnham
entity,” Galanis said.

“The financial arrangement documented by the US and Ukrainian lawyers laid out a 25% profit participation for the Burnham partners. The Burnham partners were not required to put up 25% of the capital. Instead, Burnham was putting up relationship capital of the Biden name in foreign markets like Kazakhstan and Mexico and elsewhere where oil concessions were sought from the government.”

Galanis also indicated that Joe Biden as vice president may have been more involved than known in his son’s role with an investment fund called BHR Partners, the first of two major Chinese-state-linked ventures involving the family.

Business executive Henry Zhao “was interested in this partnership because of the game-changing value add of the Biden family, including Joe Biden, who was to be a member of the Burnham-Harvest team
post-vice presidency, providing political access in the United States and around the world,” Galanis said.

“I recall being with Hunter Biden and Devon Archer at the Peninsula Bar in New York, where Hunter took a call from his father. He told his father things were going well with Henry and Harvest and that he might need a little help getting it across the finish line.”

“Hunter did not put the call on speaker as we were at this bar, but I am certain that Hunter was discussing our business efforts on the Burnham-Harvest partnership and that the Vice President was aware of these efforts.”

Archer previously told Congress in July that then-VP Biden had coffee during a 2013 trip to Beijing with Jonathan Li, the incoming CEO of BHR Partners.

Joe Biden subsequently greeted Li over speakerphone, Archer said, and wrote college recommendation letters for his children.

Another Biden family business partner, Rob Walker testified on Jan. 26 that an initial tranche of $3 million in funds from another Chinese business, CEFC China Energy, flowed to him in March 2017 — with about a third going to the Bidens — shortly after Joe Biden met CEFC Chairman Ye Jianming at DC’s Four Seasons hotel.

Walker said the money was a “thank you” for past services in a relationship that began in 2015 while Joe Biden was still vice president.