Hunter Biden
Hunter BidenReuters

The U.S. Justice Department is looking into whether Hunter Biden’s overseas business activities amount to foreign lobbying violations.

The investigation is delving into Biden’s dealing in countries such as Ukraine, China and Kazakhstan. It is also examining his taxes, according to the Washington Examiner.

The federal investigation is being led by Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss. Biden denies breaking any laws.

On Wednesday, the New York Times reported that the investigation started as a “tax inquiry” during the Obama administration and since 2018 has expanded to include “possible criminal violations of tax laws, as well as foreign lobbying and money laundering rules, according to the people familiar with the inquiry.”

Biden’s wide ranging work with foreign businesses is under scrutiny because he never registered with the Justice Department under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). Besides sitting on the board of Ukrainian energy firm Burisma, while his father was the Vice President, Biden also had business deals with Kazakhstan, China and other foreign countries during and after the years of the Obama administration.

The New York Times cited unnamed sources as saying that prosecutors may have difficulty proving that Biden “intentionally violated” FARA, and that instead they might investigate the alleged violations as a civil matter, “which would require Mr. Biden to register retroactively as a foreign agent, but would avoid criminal charges.”

Federal prosecutors in Delaware have also issued a number of subpoenas for documents linked to Biden’s work in foreign countries and for bank account records linked to him and his business associates, including two former business partners.