NEW YORK CITY – Devon Archer, former partner of President Biden’s son Hunter Biden, intends to seek Supreme Court review of his fraud conviction.
His counsel Matthew Schwartz filed notice of his intention at U.S. district court in New York City on Jan. 6, in a motion to stay an appellate court mandate.
“Absent a stay, Archer faces the prospect of serving a substantial portion of any term of incarceration despite the likelihood that the Supreme Court will vacate his conviction,” Schwartz wrote.
He claimed a sentence might last longer than Supreme Court review.
Grand jurors indicted Archer and six others in 2016, charging they arranged tribal bond issues in South Dakota and spent proceeds for personal purposes.
Conspiracy leader Jason Galanis and three others bargained pleas.
Jason’s father John Galanis went to trial before District Judge Ronnie Abrams in 2018, along with Bevan Cooney and Archer.
Jurors convicted them but Abrams vacated Archer’s conviction, finding Jason Galanis kept him in the dark while touting his political and business connections.
She found the trial didn’t convince her that Archer knew Jason Galanis perpetrated a massive fraud.
She also found the government couldn’t articulate a motive for Archer, and he never received money or directly profited.
She noted trial testimony showing his business briefly covered the failure of the scheme by paying $250,000 when interest came due.
On appeal, that testimony worked against Archer.
Circuit Judge Richard Sullivan wrote that Archer’s interest payment delayed disclosure of the fraud.
Sullivan wrote that Jason Galanis partly repaid Archer from a later bond issue.
He found defendants promised the Wakpamni tribe a conservative annuity investment but used the proceeds however they chose.
He found the jury was entitled to credit circumstantial evidence that Archer worked to acquire companies specifically to offload the bonds and knew defendants would place them in accounts of investors without disclosing conflicts of interest.
He found the very nature of the transactions was surely suspect.
He found Archer bought bonds of a second issue with proceeds from the first.
He found Archer represented that he purchased bonds from his own account.
He found the jury was entitled to endorse the government’s view that these statements were deceptive.
He found Archer knew Jason Galanis paraded his credentials and he allowed it.
He found the fraud had multiple motivations and it wasn’t necessary that Archer be fully versed in all of them.
Archer moved for rehearing, and the circuit judges denied it.
Abrams set a sentencing hearing for Jan. 28, but continued it without a date after she received Schwartz’s motion.
Archer has until May 24 to petition the Supreme Court.
Second Circuit judges plan to hear appeals of John Galanis and Cooney on Feb. 1.
Galanis claims Abrams shielded Hunter Biden and should have recused.
He swore by affidavit last year that she restricted from trial the general knowledge that Hunter Biden and Archer were partners in soliciting foreign investors.
He stated that after they acquired Burnham Securities, a Chinese firm invested $5 million in Burnham.
He raised as a more serious concern Archer’s travel while on bail.
Abrams has approved 40 trips around most of the world for Archer, including China, Russia, England, Spain, France, Mexico, and the Philippines.
After trial she let him visit Ukraine, where he and Hunter Biden had made millions as directors of energy company Burisma.
Schwartz’s motion on Archer’s behalf stated that he always rewards the court’s faith “by returning on time and without incident.”
The U.S. prison bureau website shows a May 20 release for Cooney, age 48.
It shows release for John Galanis, 77, in 2027.
It shows release for Jason Galanis, 50, in 2029.