The Biden family friend benefited from taxpayer-backed loans provided by the Obama-Biden administration. Why Hynansky needed the loans is unclear, given his vast business empire. Indeed, in 2015, Hynansky told reporters, “I have a ton of companies in the Ukraine.”145 Why OPIC granted a taxpayer-backed loan for a business that would not create jobs in the United States and would simply sell expensive European-made vehicles to the Ukrainian elite is also unclear.
What is clear is that Joe Biden helped a friend who would later help another Biden.
In June 2015, James Biden had a federal tax lien placed on the Biden Bungalow on Keewaydin Island, Florida, by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). According to tax filings, he owed nearly $590,000 to the federal government in back taxes. In late 2014, there was also a $74,700 lien placed on the home by a contractor called Gator Pressure Cleaning & Custom Painting.146 In mid-2015, help arrived when James received two mortgages totaling $900,000. The mortgages came from an obscure Delaware entity called 1018 PL LLC. According to corporate records, John Hynansky controls that company.147
The mortgages Hynansky provided seemed to do the trick. The amount James owed to the IRS dropped to just $30,000 by the end of 2015.148 Six days after he received the mortgages from Hynansky, Gator was paid, too.149
Even after Joe left office, James Biden continued to tout his ties to his brother. At a meeting in 2018, James told a group of potential business partners that the Biden Cancer Initiative, a nonprofit launched in 2017 by Joe and Jill Biden, would help promote their new business.150
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In July 1999, Joe’s other younger brother, Frank Biden, was living in San Diego and driving—with a suspended Florida license—a rented Jaguar XK8 sedan. On August 14, 1999, Frank drove the Jag to a friend’s house and later, around 11:15 p.m., they decided to go to a concert at the Belly Up Tavern in Cardiff, California. According to court documents, he gave the keys to his young friend Jason Turton; three others piled into the backseat. Frank rode shotgun, handled the stick shift, and provided instructions as they cruised down the highway. At one point, Frank shifted into high gear and told Turton “punch the car and leave it in third gear” until told otherwise. Frank then gave the command for fourth gear and the Jaguar picked up speed. Soon they were humming along between 70 and 80 mph in a 35-mph zone. Michael Albano, a thirty-seven-year-old single father, was crossing the street, having just left a beachside bar, when the Jaguar slammed into him. Albano was first struck by the right headlamp, which sent him crashing into the windshield, over the top of the car, into a backseat passenger’s face, and then onto the Jaguar’s trunk before landing on the asphalt. In depositions two of the witnesses sitting in the backseat recall Frank Biden telling Turton to “keep driving” after Albano hit the ground.151
Albano died at the scene. He left behind two young daughters, who would later describe him as a “perfect” father.152
Turton pleaded guilty to felony hit and run.153 The guardians for Albano’s daughters sued Frank Biden in court in a “wrongful death” civil lawsuit on August 14, 2000, but Frank never showed up at the courthouse. Nor did he reply to any legal correspondence from the court, including a court final judgment in September 2002 that Frank owed each of the girls $275,000 for his role in the tragedy.154
In October 1999, the guardians for the two Albano girls had hired a private investigator to find Frank. They spoke to his ex-wife, the broader Biden family, and eventually the Biden family attorney, who refused to provide any information about Frank’s whereabouts or to accept service of documents. Investigators also noted that they had “received information indicating that the Subject appears to stay with his brother, Joseph, occasionally,” and that people nearby claimed to have seen him at Joe’s house in Delaware.155
The quest for paying the judgments began. Investigators could not find any bank accounts connected to Frank “because of his apparent evasive actions”; they suspected that perhaps he had accounts “in another name or DBA.”156
Eight years after the court’s ruling, in September 2008, an attorney for the girls reached out to Senator Joe Biden in Washington, asking for assistance in locating his brother and getting him to pay the debt. Joe Biden, of course, had lost his own wife and daughter in an automobile accident so perhaps there was the hope that he would be sympathetic. Joe Biden did not respond. Instead, his chief of staff at the time wrote back in what can only be described as a businesslike—even cold—letter, revealed publicly here for the first time. “Senator Biden has received your letter of September 16 regarding a judgment by your clients against his brother Frank,” he wrote on Biden’s official Senate stationery. “The Senator wishes to express his deep sympathy with the Albano daughters over their loss. While it is correct, as you state, that Senator Biden was not involved in the accident and bears no legal liability for the judgment, the Senator would certainly encourage his brother to pay the judgment if his personal financial circumstances made that at all possible. As you are aware, however, Frank has no assets with which to satisfy the judgment. The Senator regrets that this is where matters stand and that he cannot be more helpful.”157
But Frank Biden was earning money. Indeed, seven days before Joe Biden’s office sent that letter, his brother was slapped with a tax lien from the IRS for $23,638.59 in unpaid taxes. In total he owed more than $32,000 at the time, a clear indication that Frank had income. In 2013, he paid off the tax lien in full.158
As of the time of this writing, in September 2019, the Albano daughters have still not collected their money from Frank Biden. With interest, that judgment debt is now more than $900,000.159
As we have already observed, loyalty to family is a virtue until it becomes an excuse for unethical use of public power. Here, we also note the irony that loyalty to his family would become an excuse to disregard someone else’s family—despite having the power to take compassionate action for a just cause.
Although Joe appears unwilling to help the Albano sisters collect a legitimate debt from Frank, as we will see, he has been busy helping Frank accumulate wealth through far-flung business deals.
In late March 2009, Vice President Joe Biden was headed to Costa Rica aboard Air Force Two. He went for a series of meetings with officials as a preamble to the Fifth Summit of the Americas Conference. Biden went to the Costa Rican presidential palace for a one-on-one with President Oscar Arias. Daniel Ortega, the strongman leader of neighboring Nicaragua, criticized Biden for being “too chummy” with Arias. The Biden visit had symbolic significance. The last time a high-ranking American official had visited the country was back in 1997, when Bill Clinton had come.160
Biden and Arias met with a number of associates present. Biden invited “Arias to work with him personally to develop” education policy for Central America, but also underscored that “foreign direct investment would help Costa Rica’s economy more in the short term.” During the meeting, Arias gave Biden a letter to pass on to President Obama requesting additional U.S. aid dollars to assist with Costa Rica’s education system.161 Later, the Arias administration declared that it was “a clear recognition of the trajectory of Costa Rica as the United States’ strategic partner in the region.”162
Joe Biden’s trip to Costa Rica came at a fortuitous time for his brother Frank, who was busy working deals in the country. Conveniently, any assets Frank might hold in Costa Rica would be out of reach of U.S. courts and the Albano family. Frank, who had studied law and practiced real estate in Florida, had ambitions in Costa Rica. In the months that followed, the opportunities for Frank Biden arose courtesy of the Costa Rican government. Just months after Vice President Biden’s visit, in August, Costa Rica News announced a new multilateral partnership “to reform Real Estate in Latin America” between Frank Biden, a developer named Craig Williamson, and the Guanacaste Country Club, a newly planned resort. The partnership, which appears to be ongoing, was wrapped in a beautiful package as a “call on resources available to the companies and individuals to reform th
e social, economic and environmental practices of real estate developers across the world by example.” Frank Biden declared, “Prioritizing the health and wellbeing of employees, members of the local community and protecting the breathtaking beauty that is Costa Rica is a money maker.”163
In real terms, Frank’s dream was to build in the jungles of Costa Rica thousands of homes, a world-class golf course, casinos, and an antiaging center. The Costa Rican government was eager to cooperate with the vice president’s brother.164
As Joe Biden would later recount in his book Promise Me, Dad, he was a central player in Obama administration policy toward Latin America and the Caribbean. “The President asked me to take over the job of repairing our wobbly relations across the entirety of the Americas—the Northern Triangle, Brazil, the Caribbean, everything.” He was the go-to guy in the White House for Latin America policy.165
The Costa Rican National Power and Light Company (CNFL) unveiled the conceptual design for what would later become the Guanacaste Solar Park. The new facility would provide energy for Frank’s plans for a massive resort being built just north of the town of Liberia. CNFL picked Frank’s company, Sun Fund Americas, as their partner for the solar park. Frank did not have any background in solar energy, but it was quite clear who he was when he pitched the project to investors. His brother Joe’s name figured prominently in his biography.166
Frank’s partner in the deal, as in the Guanacaste Country Club, was a real estate investor in Costa Rica named Craig S. Williamson, an American army veteran who now lived in the country.167 Williamson was arrested in 2014 for failing to appear in court related to a fraud charge.168 Long active in selling real estate to Americans in Central America, Williamson describes himself as a “Central American Real Estate Investment Advisor for many North American based Institutional Real Estate Investors as well as hundreds of Private Investors, including the family of US Vice President Joseph Biden.”169
Frank’s vision for a country club in Costa Rica received support from the highest levels of the Costa Rican government—despite his lack of experience in building such developments. He met with the Costa Rican ministers of education and energy and environment, as well as the president of the country. Costa Rican president Luis Guillermo Solis Rivera even penned a letter to Frank Biden praising the project. The letter found its way onto the internet seeking presales for the project to investors back in the United States.170
On October 4, 2016, the Costa Rican Ministry of Public Education signed a letter of intent with Frank’s company, Sun Fund Americas. The project involved allowing a company called GoSolar to operate solar power facilities in Costa Rica. The previous year, the Obama-Biden administration’s OPIC had authorized a $6.5 million taxpayer-backed loan for the project.171
Despite Frank’s MIA status concerning the Albano debt, Joe and Frank Biden have remained close over the years. As Frank explains in his bio, “Throughout his career Mr. Biden worked as an unpaid senior advisor on all of his brother Joe Biden’s senatorial campaigns, culminating in the Presidential election of 2012. He is currently senior advisor to the former VP’s 2020 political action committee.”172 During Joe’s tenure as vice president, Frank frequently visited the White House. On May 1, 2014, Frank sat in on a small meeting with Barack Obama in the Oval Office.173 In 2016, Frank was a guest at the Singapore State Dinner in the White House.174
Frank’s company, Sun Fund Americas, had ambitions beyond Costa Rica. The company states that it “teams with governments and local partners and provides debt and equity financing, as well as world-class brands, operators and equipment suppliers” for projects.175 Here, too, Joe could help.
In June 2014, Vice President Joe Biden announced the launch of the Caribbean Energy Security Initiative (CESI). The program called for increasing access to financing for Caribbean energy projects that he strongly supported. American taxpayer dollars were dedicated to facilitating deals that matched U.S. government financing with local energy projects in Caribbean countries, including Jamaica.176 In January 2015, Biden hosted CESI in Washington, D.C., bringing together leaders from across the region to discuss energy issues and in particular, renewable energy.177 One primary focus of the conference was local and international dealmakers needing help to bring renewable energy projects to the Caribbean region. USAID announced that it would be spending $10 million to boost renewable energy projects in Jamaica over the next five years.178
After Joe Biden brought together leaders for CESI, brother Frank’s firm Sun Fund Americas announced that it was “engaged in projects and is in negotiations with governments of other countries in the [Caribbean] region for both its Solar and Waste to Energy development services.”179 As if to push the idea along, the Obama administration’s OPIC provided a $47.5 million loan to support the construction of a 20-megawatt solar facility in Clarendon, Jamaica. When the deal was announced, U.S. ambassador to Jamaica Luis G. Moreno noted that the project “wouldn’t be possible without OPIC financing.”180
Frank Biden’s Sun Fund Americas later announced that it had signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) to build a 20-megawatt solar facility in Jamaica.181
* * *
Many of Frank’s commercial ventures sidecar with government initiatives driven by his famous brother, and so far, those described have been international.
Closer to home, one of Frank’s largest business ventures involves education. Just as the lack of a background in large-scale real estate developments did not deter him in Costa Rica, and lack of a background in renewable energy did not deter him in Jamaica, lack of a professional background in education was no roadblock in Florida. In 2008, with his brother on the verge of becoming vice president, Frank became involved in the lucrative commercial real estate side of the charter school movement.
His older brother had a history of supporting charter schools in the U.S. Senate. Back in 2001, for example, he cosponsored the “Charters and Choice” bill, one of only eight Democrats to do so.182 In the 2008 campaign, the Obama-Biden ticket had vowed to double funding for charter schools.183 Charter schools are public schools established with taxpayer funding but, unlike traditional public schools, have greater flexibility in experimenting with different teaching models. Charter school methods have shown significant success in turning around some troubled public schools.184
Beginning in 2009, there was a lot of taxpayer money available for starting charter schools. As part of the federal stimulus, the Obama-Biden administration made $5 billion available for “education innovations,” which opened the door to more charter schools.185
Frank’s interest was in the business side of the schools, in particular, the underlying real estate associated with them. He discovered early on that charter schools pay rent using taxpayer dollars. Managed correctly and with the right connections, this created profitable opportunities.
In Joe Biden’s first year as vice president, Frank became involved with a for-profit management company for charter schools called Mavericks in Education Florida LLC. Frank says that his involvement grew out of a chance encounter in a coffee shop when he bumped into a South Florida businessman named Mark Rodberg. Mavericks built schools for at-risk students who had trouble in class. The schools themselves would be nonprofits, but Mavericks in Education Florida LLC would be a for-profit company that charged the schools management fees, while the related School Property Development LLC owned and charged high rents for their buildings. The funds would come from taxpayer money and federal grants. Whether the school failed or succeeded, the for-profit company owned the real estate assets.186
It was not long before Frank was flying around Florida in a private jet, lobbying local politicians and school officials to allow Mavericks to manage charter schools in their communities. Eventually, he became president and director of development for the company. Whenever the company shared his biography for a business proposal, the fact that he was the brother of the vice president of the United States was in the first or second sentence.187
From 2009 to 2011, Mavericks opened eight schools in Florida.189 When Mavericks set up a school in Fort Lauderdale, they acquired the building from a controversial Broward County power broker named Jesse P. Gaddis.
Known as “Fort Lauderdale’s Taxi King,” Gaddis “had ties to mobsters and major drug smugglers.” As a young man, Gaddis was charged and convicted of armed robbery, and went to jail. In a later case, he was charged with kidnapping and robbery, although the charges were eventually dropped. Authorities also investigated Gaddis in connection with a drug-smuggling operation in which his brother and business partner, Donald Gaddis, was killed. His brother was found in a shallow grave in southwest Florida.190
The deal between Mavericks and Gaddis had extraordinarily lucrative terms for Gaddis: Gaddis exchanged the building for a $2 million promissory note attached to the mortgage at an initial interest rate of 12 percent (lowered to 10 percent in 2014). The term was originally for five years and was twice extended, in 2014 and 2017. The first extension reveals that the interest-only monthly payments for the note’s second term were nearly $16,700.191
Mavericks LLC was a business. “Are there people making money in charter schools? Absolutely,” Frank Biden explained in one interview. “I don’t apologize for them at all. Just run good schools for kids who need them.”192
Mavericks ran with its own unusual teaching model: students would interact with teachers for only a few hours a day. The rest of the time, they would sit in front of computers as part of self-directed learning.193
According to the Florida Department of Education, the performance record of Mavericks Schools in Florida was abysmal. These were not what one would regard as “good schools for kids.” The best-performing Mavericks school was in Kissimmee, near Disney World. The graduation rate at that school was just 43 percent in 2011. Things were worse at Mavericks’ other Florida locations: in Largo, the graduation rate was an astonishing 7.2 percent; in Homestead, it was an incredible 4.5 percent.194
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