Satabank used for alleged $10 million bribe to Hunter Biden from Ukrainian gas firm

The shuttered Maltese bank Satabank was used by a Ukrainian gas firm to channel payments to American president Joe Biden’s son Hunter.

The details emerge from a leaked cache of documents and images found in a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden, who was at one point employed by gas firm Burisma in 2014.

The allegation is that Satabank – investigated over a slew of suspicious transactions that included organised criminality – was used to flout money laundering rules, according to claims by a longstanding FBI informant, for a $10 million payment from Burisma to Hunter, using various offshore transactions.

The emails from the Biden laptop show income statements, pasport details and utility bills sent to Burisma executive Vadym Pozharskyi, to set up an account at Satabank in 2016.

Screenshots of emails from Biden's laptop

In a bid to provide a declaration of source of wealth, Pozharskyi is believed to have enrolled the services of Maltese auctioneer Pierre Grech Pillow, and his company PGP Trading, who was charged in 2020 with money laundering.

The charges against Grech Pillow emanated from a suspicious transaction report over the sale of a disassembled oil rig involving Burisma. But Grech Pillow’s defence lawyer insisted that the transaction was carried out with due diligence and bank approval.

The court case revealed that Burisma owner Mykola Zolchevsky rented Grech Pillow’s apartment in Ta’ Xbiex in 2014, to apply for a Maltese golden passport. Both Zlochevsky and Burisma had been the targets of a financial crime investigation by the UK’s Serious Fraud Office that year, although the case was closed without charges.

The FBI revealed to Congress that an informant told them of an alleged $10 million money laundering and bribery scheme involving Hunter.

The House Oversight Committee said they were tipped off to the existence of a document detailing the scheme by the whistleblower. Initially rebuffed by the FBI when they demanded a copy, the Bureau relented when FBI director Christopher Wray risked being held in contempt of Congress. The 30 June, 2020 document is a write-up of claims by a longstanding informant who had been paid a total $200,000 by the FBI since 2010 for information.

The informant claimed Burisma owner Zlochevsky told them about his scheme to pay $5 million each to Hunter and his father Joe Biden, through a network of bank accounts, as a bribe to halt an investigation of Burisma by Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin, and to facilitate favourable treatment of the gas company.