Biden’s niece talked with Hunter while she was serving as Treasury official during Obama admin about potential China investment

President Biden’s niece — while working at the Obama administration’s Treasury Department — shared tips with first son Hunter Biden about China’s largest government wealth fund, which he later sought as a potential investment opportunity, according to emails on his abandoned laptop.
Casey Owens, the daughter of first sister Valerie Biden Owens, notified her cousin and his business partners at now-defunct Rosemont Seneca Advisors about an investment conference held by China Investment Corporation (CIC) while working as a special assistant for the department’s US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue, an April 12, 2010, email shows.
“FYI on recent CIC investment conference at a resort in Sanya, on Hainan Island, over the weekend of March 27-28,” Owens wrote to Hunter and his partner Eric Schwerin in the missive from her official Treasury email account, along with text from an article by AsianInvestor.com.
The conference was billed as a “coming out” party for the sovereign wealth fund, which held hundreds of billions of dollars, after a successful return on its international investments the previous year, according to the piece.
Hunter Biden had met and posed for pictures with CIC General Manager and Chief Investment Officer Gao Xiqing a few days earlier, according to a 2020 report on his overseas ventures compiled by Senate Republicans.
As Rosemont Seneca’s chairman, Hunter had “visited Chinese financial institutions and fund companies from April 7th to 9th,” according to an April 12, 2010, press release from the Boston investment advisory firm Thornton Group, “aiming to further deepen mutual understanding and explore the possibility of commercial cooperation and opportunity.”
Casey Owens, the daughter of first sister Valerie Biden Owens, notified her cousin and his business partners about an investment conference held by China Investment Corporation. Twitter
Owens made her own trip to China the next month, as part of a US delegation led by then-Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. During the visit, then-Chinese Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao presented Owens with a “small jade vase as a birthday gift,” according to an article in her high school’s alumni magazine, The Tower Hill Bulletin.
Owens shared tips with Hunter Biden about China’s largest government wealth fund. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Hunter had “visited Chinese financial institutions and fund companies from April 7 to 9,” according to a 2010 press release. Getty Images/David McNew
The US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue team “worked very closely” with Zhu, the article states.
Months later, Owens shared a Bloomberg News article highlighting a “record year” for CIC after the 2008 financial crisis and was put in touch with another associate of Rosemont Seneca to discuss coordination between government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) and China.
“Per our conversation regarding GSEs and China, I wanted to put you in touch with Hunter’s cousin, Casey Owens, who is at the Treasury Department and works on the Strategic Economic Dialogue,” Schwerin wrote in an Aug. 4, 2010, email to the associate, Jack Casey. “I have cc:ed Casey on this email. Feel free to reach out to her directly, she’s expecting to hear from you.”
“Jack, Happy to speak at your convenience,” Owens replied. Schwerin also forwarded the exchange to Hunter.
Eric Schwerin connected Hunter and Devon Archer in an email with a ranking of the world’s top sovereign wealth funds. Rod Lamkey – CNP
Fox News first reported on the emails between Owens, Hunter and his associates, and a source familiar with the situation told the outlet Rosemont Seneca had likely been pursuing CIC to invest in their clients.
One year later, Schwerin looped in Hunter and fellow Rosemont Seneca co-founder Devon Archer on an email with a ranking of the world’s top sovereign wealth funds — including CIC, which listed $332 billion in assets at the time.
“Let’s discuss today what else we can be doing to connect with these groups,” Archer said in response to the March 8, 2011, email, noting an upcoming meeting they had scheduled with CIC on April 21.
That meeting occurred the following month, The Post has previously reported, though there is no evidence that a deal was ever struck between the parties.
Owens also apparently emailed her uncle while he was vice president, according to communications on Hunter’s laptop, and in one email said she was “deeply” affected by “incredible” remarks he gave to her Treasury team.
Owens wrote to Hunter and his partner Eric Schwerin in the missive from her official Treasury email account, along with text from an article by AsianInvestor.com.
Email exchange between Schwerin and Owens.
“That was really something else, Uncle Joe. What a way to exit the Treasury,” she wrote on May 10, 2011, to a pseudonymous email address titled auks@att.blackberry.net.
“I’m almost embarrassed by how deeply today has impacted me. I’m simply happy to be close to you, and I just wanted to say thank you for including me,” she told the account, named for the mascot of Archmere Academy, where Biden and his son attended high school.
Two years later, Rosemont and Thornton would form the private investment fund BHR Partners with two Chinese entities linked to the state-owned Bank of China.
Jonathan Li is the CEO of BHR Partners.
Biden, still while vice president, “had coffee” with BHR Partners CEO Jonathan Li the same year and Hunter later put his dad on speakerphone with the executive, according to sworn congressional testimony Archer gave in July.
As recently as late 2021, Hunter was known to hold a 10% stake in the company, which manages $2.1 billion in assets.
Owens got her job at the Treasury Department shortly after her uncle took office as veep and remained there for two years before leaving to rise through the corporate ranks at Starbucks, where she currently works as a vice president, according to her LinkedIn profile.
She did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
The White House, the Treasury Department and Hunter’s defense counsel Abbe Lowell also did not immediately respond to requests for comment.