Hunter Biden admits Burisma hired him because of family name

Hunter Biden has admitted that he got a job on the board of Ukrainian gas company Burisma because of his family name, as he opens up about a job that almost cost his father the presidency.

The 51-year-old said Burisma viewed his family name as ‘gold’ when the firm hire him in 2014 because it is ‘synonymous with democracy and transparency’ and hoped to capitalize on that reputation while trying to counter Russian ‘aggression’ in Crimea.

But he denied leveraging connections to his father – who was then US vice president and leading Obama’s policy on Ukraine – while in the job, saying his day-to-day was ‘100% limited to… corporate governance and transparency’. 

He also admitted that being a Biden had ‘opened doors that wouldn’t be opened up to other people’, but said that was ‘both a privilege and a burden’.

Asked by the BBC whether his father’s reputation had got him the Burisma job, he replied: ‘I think it played a large part.

‘I think that they saw my name as gold and the reason they did was this: Right at that time, the Russians had invaded and taken Crimea and they were after the natural resources and the pipeline. 

‘And I know that Burisma wanted to do one thing: They wanted to create a bulwark against that Russian aggression, they knew they had to expand internationally and into other sectors to diversify and protect themselves.

‘The Biden name is synonymous with democracy and transparency and that’s why I said it was gold to them.’