WASHINGTON – Congress caught Hunter Biden’s former partner Devon Archer between a year in prison and a fresh investigation of the firm he and Biden operated.
Rep. James Comer’s Oversight Committee expects to question Archer on July 31.
Two weeks earlier all judges of the U.S. Second Circuit appellate court in New York City denied rehearing of Archer’s appealof his sentence for fraud and conspiracy.
They issued their mandate to District Judge Ronnie Abrams of New York City on July 25.
She sentenced Archer last year and granted bail pending appeal.
The appeal preserved a deep freeze on a civil fraud action of the Securities and Exchange Commission, which has waited seven years to proceed.
Magistrate Judge Ona Wang ordered Archer to produce documents for the commission on subjects including Biden, but his appeals have kept a stay in place.
Grand jurors indicted Archer and other defendants in 2016, charging they misused $60 million in proceeds from bond issues they arranged for an Oglala Sioux tribe.
Archer and two other defendants stood trial in 2018.
At trial on Oct. 23, a prosecutor moved for an order that the government didn’t have to produce certain material for the defense.
On Oct. 24, the government filed the material under seal.
Jurors found the defendants guilty and they moved for a second trial.
On Nov. 15, Abrams granted it only for Archer.
On the same date she signed an order keeping the material from Oct. 24 under seal.
“While the material mentions certain individuals and entities relevant to the matter at hand, the conduct described therein is wholly unrelated,” she wrote.
“To the extent there is additional impeachment information in the material, it was not required to be produced as there already existed substantial bases for the defendants to impeach those individuals at trial who are either government witnesses or hearsay defendants,” she added.
The government appealed a second trial for Archer and in 2020, the Second Circuit reversed Abrams and ordered her to sentence him.
At a sentencing hearing last year Abrams said she must accept he had the requisite intent to commit the crimes for which he was convicted.
“I must accept that he knew that the investment advisor clients were being defrauded and the tribal bond proceeds were being misappropriated,” she said.
“I have no doubt the circuit will be in a position to hear this again,” she continued.
Abrams sentenced him for a year and a day with a year of supervision after that and she ordered him to forfeit almost $16 million.
Wang jumped at the chance to move forward on the civil action and she ordered compliance with her long standing discovery order.
Archer appealed his sentence and his conviction, and Wang restored the stay.
The Second Circuit disposed of the appeal in June, finding Archer personally purchased $15 million in the second bond issue using money defendant Jason Galanis gave him.
They found Archer represented to the tribe that he purchased the bonds for his own account and for investment only.
The Second Circuit found he transferred them to an entity that other defendants controlled and he made false statements about the source of the money to Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank.
They also found evidence that Archer was informed about progress of the acquisitions.
Archer moved for a rehearing “en banc,” in front of all Second Circuit judges.
They denied it and the court issued the mandate.
Archer anticipates an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, according to U.S. attorney Damian Williams.
He sent a letter to Abrams on July 29 asking her to set a date for Archer to commence his imprisonment.
He stated the government asked Archer to propose a date.
Archer’s counsel allegedly responded, “Mr. Archer believes it is premature to set a report date in light of his anticipated continuing appeal as well as the newly discovered sentencing error that the government has now conceded.”
Williams stated Schwartz would respond to the request for a surrender by Aug. 2.
He asked permission to respond to Archer’s arguments.
News of the letter spread and sparked speculation about its connection to Archer’s testimony in Congress.
Williams explained it to Abrams on July 30.
“To be clear, the government does not request and has never requested that the defendant surrender before his Congressional testimony,” he wrote.
“As the Court knows, to surrender and commence his sentence of imprisonment, the defendant first must be designated to a federal facility by the Bureau of Prisons, a process that can take several weeks or months after the Court sets a surrender date,” he added.
“Nonetheless, for the avoidance of all doubt, the Government requests that any surrender date, should the Court order one, be scheduled to occur after the defendant’s Congressional testimony is completed,” he continued.
Abrams endorsed the Saturday letter on July 31 stating she’d await Archer’s response.