Hunter Biden is in the spotlight right now. The son of former US Vice President Joe Biden, Hunter Biden has been a prominent figure in the Congressional hearings that almost certainly will lead to an impeachment trial against President Trump in the Senate. Biden is also under fire for making $50,000 a month while employed by the Ukrainian firm Burisma Holdings. Biden recently stepped down from his position as a Board member of the Chinese company BHR, a firm described by the Financial Times as, “a private investment fund backed by a number of Chinese state entities including Bank of China, China Postal Savings Bank and China Development Bank.”

That the Biden family has long mixed money and politics is no secret. This is true of many political family dynasties on both sides of the aisle. The proximity to a powerful political leader confers upon anyone — family member or friend — incredible access to elite business and social circles.

In 2006, then Senator Joe Biden’s brother James and his son Hunter entered into an agreement to purchase a New York fund of hedge funds called Paradigm Global Advisors. The firm was started in 1991 by Dr James Park, one of the many sons-in-law of Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon. Dr. Park claimed that Paradigm had $1.5 billion in assets under management. The Bidens failed to conduct proper due diligence and Dr. Park’s claim was later found to be false.

In 2008 Barack Obama was elected President of the United States. Hunter Biden’s father Joe Biden was now the Vice President.

R. ALLEN STANFORD

James and Hunter Biden’s firm Paradigm became involved with Texas financier R. Allen Stanford. A new dual-branded firm was created: the Paradigm Stanford Capital Management Core Alternative Fund.

In 2009, the US Securities and Exchange Commission charged R. Allen Stanford in a staggering $8 billion dollar fraud:

The Bidens’ Paradigm Global Advisors was not involved in any way with the Stanford fraud. Indeed, Paradigm offered to turn over to a court-appointed receiver the $2.7 million in Stanford seed money it had received. At the time, James and Hunter Biden denied ever personally meeting R. Allen Stanford.

THE PONTA NEGRA FRAUD

Another troubling development related to the Bidens firm was the Ponta Negra fraud. Ponta Negra was a scam operated by a 27-year-old named Francesco Rusciano. From the 2009 SEC Complaint:

Australian blogger John Hempton discovered certain explosive facts lurking in the Ponta Negra story in 2009 (emphasis ours):

1. Ponta Negra gives its address in the second marketing document as 650 Fifth Avenue, 17th Floor.  This is the same address as Paradigm Global.

2. The contact on the first marketing document for Ponta Negra is Jeffry Schneider.  This is the same Jeffry Schneider who is quoted in this Wall Street Journal article as being the marketer for Paradigm Global and effectively spins for the Bidens.

3. This SEC filing gives an address and phone number for Ponta Negra.  The address and phone number is a number through the switchboard of Paradigm Global and until recently it was a way of getting into contact with Ponta Negra.

At a minimum Paradigm Global – a fund of fund managers owned the Vice President’s family, housed an alleged fraudster. The alleged fraudster used the same phone number as the Vice President’s family business, the same marketing machine and traded off the good name of the Vice President’s family business.

In 2009, The American Spectator reported on Ponta Negra, Jeffry Schneider, and the Bidens lack of due diligence (emphasis ours):

The SEC’s action against Ponta Negra is not the newsworthy event. It is the fund’s curious relationship with Paradigm Global Advisors, LLC. A fund of hedge funds, Paradigm is owned and managed by James and Hunter Biden, brother and son of Vice President Joe Biden.

The SEC has not alleged any wrongdoing by Paradigm, but as a fund of hedge funds, the firm’s forte is purportedly to be the wizards of due diligence. On this task, they have seemingly come up short. Ponta Negra and Paradigm occupied the same floor in a Manhattan office building, used the same marketing agent [Jeffry Schneider], and shared the same telephone number. Paradigm officials have explained that this curious set of coincidences was a result of Ponta Negra having leased office space and facilities from Paradigm.

Fair enough. But the shared marketing agent, Jeffry Schneider, had a sketchy past and was previously the subject of numerous complaints and litigation. The SEC’s action against Ponta Negra was filed in U.S. District Court in Austin, Texas, where Schneider was previously employed suggesting the SEC investigation likely began with him. Questions have been raised regarding Schneider’s past employment and the circumstances regarding his departures from previous investment firms.

The facts show that Jeffry Schneider brought in bad actors R. Allen Stanford and Ponta Negra into the offices of Paradigm. Schneider himself affirmed this. In doing so, we see Schneider working with unsavory characters in the mid-2000’s and even earlier.

JEFFRY SCHNEIDER

We know the name of Jeffry Schnieder from the story of Scientologist David Gentile and his scandal-ridden private equity firm GPB Capital Holdings.

As of this writing, Jeffry Schneider is the CEO of Ascendant Capital which appears to be nothing more than an alter ego of GPB Capital Holdings. We earlier posted the photo below of key players in the current GPB structure. This photo was taken at a party in Schneider’s Austin home in 2017. The party celebrated GPB having raised one billion dollars from investors through its broker-dealer network:

2017: Photo from Jeffry Schneider’s blog. Names of key GPB officials (current and former) tagged by the Scientology Money Project.

What Hunter Biden’s Paradigm Global Advisors and Scientologist-owned GPB Capital have in common is Jeffry Schneider in a key management position.

Our research thus far shows no dealings between Hunter Biden and  Jeffrey Schneider after 2010 when Biden and his partners unwound Paradigm. However, the research continues.

Recommended Reading: The New Republic — The Fall of the House of Moon
: Sex rituals, foreign spies, Biden offspring, and the Unification Church’s war-torn first family

National Review: Hunter Biden: The Most Comprehensive Timeline

HOW DID DAVID GENTILE AND JEFFREY SCHNEIDER MEET?

According to an Inc.com article describing how GPB Capital became a unicorn in five years, Gentile and Schnieder first met in 2007. This was when Schneider was working for Hunter Biden at Paradigm:

In 2007, David Gentile was a CPA working at his father’s CPA firm on Long Island. How did the two men who would become the co-founders of GPB Capital meet? To answer this question, at least in part, we post Schneider’s biography as found on his Onyx Capital website:

In 1990 Jeffry Schneider began his career at Alex Brown in New York City. In 1992 he joined Paine Webber and ultimately was recruited by CIBC Oppenheimer where he became a senior vice president with the Corporate and Executive Services team. CIBC is a leading integrated financial services corporation in New York, providing wealth management and investment banking services to family businesses, institutional investors, and others.

Jeffry Schneider then joined Axiom Capital Management, a full-service broker/dealer with operations in New York and Florida, where he was appointed senior vice president. Jeffry Schneider specialized in alternative investments and used this asset class to fulfill the financial needs of individuals and institutions.

In 2004, Jeffry Schneider moved into another senior vice president role, with Paradigm Global Advisors, where he managed and supervised the company’s US efforts in the marketing and structuring division of the firm.

In 2006, Jeffry Schneider founded Onyx Capital in response to the burgeoning interest in alternative investments emanating from high net-worth households and smaller, institutional investors. Despite the growth in allocations to hedge funds, private equity, real estate, and other alternative investments, private clients and smaller institutions have not had adequate assistance in identifying and investing in top-tier sponsors.

Onyx Capital LLC was owned by Jeffry Schneider. According to a piece in Seeking Alpha, Schneider used Onyx to market the bogus Ponta Negra funds from inside Paradigm’s offices. Coincident with this, according to his online resume, Schneider was working as a senior vice president for the Bidens Paradigm Global Advisors.

In its article Untangling floor 17, 650 5th Avenue, the FT examined the disturbing relationships between the various parties on the 17th floor of 650 5th Avenue in New York City where the Bidens had their Paragon office. The National Review article we cited above said of the 650 5th Avenue address:

November 12, 2009: Paradigm’s run of bad luck continues when the U.S. Department of Justice determines that the Manhattan skyscraper housing the offices of Paradigm is partially owned by individuals helping the Iranian government evade sanctions. By 2017, federal prosecutors would contend that the building “served as a front for the Iranian government and as a gateway for millions of dollars to be funneled to Iran in clear violation of U.S. sanctions laws.” There is no evidence that the Bidens or Paradigm knew of their landlord’s ties.

THE CREATION MYTH OF GPB CAPITAL HOLDINGS ACCORDING TO JEFFREY LASH

According to the creation myth of GPB Capital Holdings as written by former GPB executive Jeffrey Lash, it all began with Lash’s fondness for cars and selling cars. As he tells the story, he spent many years in the automotive industry where he excelled at all phases of the business. As a result, Volkswagen of America “awarded Lash an open point franchise in one of their largest metro markets.” Lash pooled money with silent partners — including his friend David Gentile — to fund the heavy costs of opening this first dealership.

Lash and Gentile shared a fondness for the automotive business and soon began to purchase more car dealerships. Soon their ambitions outstripped the ambitions and cash of their silent partners and the two had to look for a larger source of capital. Enter Jeffry Schneider (emphasis ours):

At that point, the silent partners didn’t share the goal of expanding to 10 or 20 more stores, prompting Lash and his team to seek other investment options. Lash and Gentile turned to Jeffry Schneider, president of a private equity firm. They formed GPB Capital LLC with Lash appointed as Managing Partner of Automotive. It was a bold move, and one that was crucial to Lash and his partners’ expansion and future. Lash, accompanied by Schneider and Gentile, traveled the country presenting automotive as an investment strategy. Investors were very excited about this new opportunity in the automotive sector…

In 2013, GPB Capital started with four dealerships and by 2017, had acquired 35 dealerships. They had the second largest purchase in history with Prime Automotive Group, and by the end of 2017 had 66 dealerships. GPB’s current dealerships range from highline brands, such as Mercedes, Porsche and Audi, to Japanese brands, like Honda, Nissan and Toyota, to domestics, such as General Motors, Ford and Chrysler. GPB Capital’s annual sales reached $3.2 billion in 2017 and it is now the ninth largest auto group in the United States.

David Gentile eventually pushed Jeffrey Lash out of the picture and GPB; Lash then sued Gentile and GPB in a short-lived lawsuit.

THE CREATION MYTH OF GPB CAPITAL HOLDINGS ACCORDING TO DAVID GENTILE

From the Inc.com article we sided earlier on GPB’s unicorn status, David Gentile offered this version of how GPB began:

How did GPB Capital transform from an idea to a billion-dollar company? To appreciate the feat, you first need to break down the chain of events — and it all started in 2007 when founders David Gentile and Jeffry Schneider first met.

• In 2012, Jeffry Schneider formed Ascendant Capital. That company would later become the exclusive distribution partner of GPB Capital, which was formed in 2013 by David Gentile. Things went way uphill from there.
• During the same year, GPB Capital launched GPB Holdings & purchased Lash Auto Group, signed the company’s first broker/dealer, and launched their GPB Automotive Portfolio.
• In 2014, the company opened its first New York City office, successfully raising $100 million for the fund.
• Subsequently, in 2015, GPB Capital raised another $250 million, launching a second fund (GPB Holdings 2) and closing their first.
• The raises continue over the next two years, where GPB Capital brings in another $500 million in 2016.
• In 2017, they finally achieved unicorn status and in the same year, GPB was named on Crain’s “Best Places to Work in 2017″.

It only took four years for one small company to achieve success most entrepreneurs can only imagine.

The real story of what actually happened inside of GPB Capital has been coming out in a steady series of lawsuits against the firm. Toni Caiazzo Neff’s discovery of David Gentile’s 2013 involvement with the Chernaya sisters raises serious questions as Jeffrey Schneider and Gentile founded GPB Capital that same year. Based upon Neff’s work, we found David Gentile and Chernaya sisters RDRD Holdings in which the trio owned the substantial part of the offshore online gaming company SeanieMac. We covered this in an earlier post.

In another post, we will cover the Dripping Springs Holdings LLC matter in Texas. This appears to be an early Schneider-Gentile warm up for GPB Capital.