WASHINGTON D.C. – Serbian consultant and former United Nations president Vuk Jeremic, who previously worked as a manager for a company owned by Edwardsville attorney Jeffrey Cooper, declined to assist with a Congressional investigation of the Biden family.
Cooper told the Record that Jeremic "was a manager a long time ago for a very short time period."
"He has not been a part of the company for many years," he said. "I am not aware of his status or position with regard to any of these matters."
Jeremic was previously listed as a manager of Cooper's Atomic 47 corporation.
The general assembly of the United Nations elected Jeremic president for a year in 2012, and he ran for secretary general in 2016.
Chinese energy company CEFC paid him $333,000 a year and donated millions to his think tank in Belgrade.
In February, House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer asked him for communications with Hunter Biden, Eric Schwerin, Devon Archer, and James Gilliar since 2014.
Comer specifically asked if the justice department redacted Hunter Biden’s name from an exhibit when Jeremic testified at a criminal trial.
Comer also asked Jeremic for communications with former CEFC Chairman Ye Jianming and Patrick Ho, former head of CEFC’s American operation.
Comer wrote that he’d send instructions for answering and he asked Jeremic to make himself available for interview with committee staff.
Jeremic denied American jurisdiction.
The criminal trial with the fuzzy exhibit involved charges of foreign corrupt practices and money laundering against Patrick Ho at district court in New York City.
Prosecutor Daniel Richenthal asked Jeremic what he did, and he said three things.
“I am one of the opposition leaders of the opposition in my own country Serbia,” he said.
“I am head of international think tank called Center for International Relations and Sustainable Development,” he added.
“Number three, international consultant,” he concluded.
Jeremic said he was Minister of Foreign Affairs, equivalent to Secretary of State, from 2007 to 2012.
He said he and CEFC contracted two months after he left the United Nations.
“My specialty is to give advice as to where the politics are going to a certain country or a certain part of the world but I’m not that well versed or experienced in how the actual business transactions or trades are being executed,” he said.
District Judge Loretta Preska sent jurors out and asked counsel about an exhibit with someone in it that the government didn’t want to identify.
Richenthal said the top of an email chain listed a person Jeremic was willing to bring to a dinner with Ye Jianming.
“Our view is that the name of that individual is not relevant and could introduce a political dimension to this case that we don’t think is worth dealing with,” he said.
Patrick Ho’s counsel Edward Kim said redaction would create an impression that Patrick Ho initiated contact when the opposite was true.
He said the name gave context and understanding.
Preska said it wasn’t necessary.
Richenthal asked about the center in Belgrade; and Jeremic said in 2013, he raised with CEFC the possibility of supporting it and they did.
Richenthal then asked how much, and Jeremic said one million U.S. dollars.
Richenthal asked how much since then, and he said millions.
On cross examination, Kim asked him what the goals of the center were.
Jeremic said, “The goals -”
Richenthal objected, and Preska sustained it.
Kim asked to refer to a document in evidence, and Preska said he could.
Kim displayed a letter to donors stating the center’s activities were “aimed at fulfilling its goals of strengthening peaceful cooperation, advocating a more inclusive, prosperous, and safe international system, and promoting sustainable development as the foundation of the new global strategy of the United Nations post-2015 agenda.”
Jurors convicted Patrick Ho, and Preska sentenced him to three years.
Ye Jianming faced corruption charges in China, and news sources claim he has disappeared or his whereabouts are unknown.
The government closed CEFC and transferred assets and operation to the city of Shanghai.