“... the Biden Foundation only gave two grants totalling a little more than $400,000 to the YMCA that year. It would mark the nonprofit’s only direct donation to the initiative.
In fact, even though the Biden Foundation raised $3.2 million in 2018, it donated just $55,000 more to three other nonprofits. The Military Child Education Coalition, a charity based in Texas that assists the families of U.S. servicemen, received a paltry $20,000 from the fund.
Politically connected lawyers, however, fared much better. Perkins Coie, best known for acting as the pass-through between Fusion GPS and the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2016 to produce the infamous Steele dossier, was paid more than $230,000.
Aside from a handful of minor grants, the Biden Foundation made only one other major contribution in its three-year history; the charity donated $495,323 to the Biden Cancer Initiative, a separate nonprofit created in 2017, two years after Beau Biden died of brain cancer.
In 2017 and 2018, the Biden Cancer Initiative raised another $4.8 million in donations; it did not award any grants. Instead, the nonprofit spent $3 million on the salaries and benefits of a four-person staff.
And like all things Biden, the group acted as a gateway to financially benefit close family members. Dr. Howard Krein, Biden’s son-in-law, served on its board of directors.
Biden and Krein traveled around the country to attend health care industry events under the guise of the Biden Cancer Initiative as the former vice president shored up financial support for the 2020 Democratic primaries.
“[D]rug companies, hospitals, insurers, medical associations and charities have pledged millions to the cause,” a 2019 Associated Press expose revealed.
The partnerships posed a conflict of interest for two reasons. First, the partnering companies, according to an estimate by AP, had roughly $400 million in business before the federal government at the time.
The ties, one ethics professor admitted, could create a concern that the “Biden administration would give favorable treatment for anyone who supported his foundation.” (Joe and Jill Biden stepped down as co-chairs shortly after the AP story.)
Second, at the same time Krein was attached to Biden’s hip and touting this nonprofit around the world, he was—and remains—a top executive at a healthcare venture capital firm.
Krein’s brother, Steve, launched StartUp Health in 2011, “which evolved into a full-fledged investment firm and startup incubator,” a recent Politico article detailed.
Steve Krein scored an Oval Office meeting with Obama shortly thereafter, thanks to a call from Joe Biden.
Steve Krein scored an Oval Office meeting with Obama shortly thereafter, thanks to a call from Joe Biden.
“The influence concerns posed by the firm are compounded by its foreign ties,” Politico’s Ben Schreckinger wrote in an overlooked article on October 13. “One StartUp Health fund raised $31 million from investors, including . . . the Chinese insurer Ping An.
The firm’s website also lists the Chinese technology conglomerate Tencent as a ‘co-investor’ in its cancer moonshot initiative.”
The Kreins now are looking to profit from the coronavirus pandemic. StartUp Health announced in March an effort to invest in “innovations” to combat the virus. Biden even did a voice-over for a promotional video posted on the firm’s website.
Krein, once again, is doing double-duty; he’s advising his father-in-law on COVID policy and response while running StartUp Health. (Krein is a surgeon.)
Biden and Kamala Harris have made the president’s coronavirus response a central, and they hope, winning campaign issue.
More lockdowns and a national mask mandate could be a near-term reality if Biden is elected; the nonstop hysteria certainly will serve the Biden family’s health care-related interests.
Both Biden charities have suspended operation. Despite the Bidens’ moralizing about helping others, the nonprofits did little but help the Biden family.
It’s almost like a family tradition.”
It’s almost like a family tradition.”
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