Congress Issues Subpoenas On Inmate Tied To Hunter Biden

Congressman Jim Jordan (OH, Chairman Committee on the Judiciary) and James Comer (KY, Chairman Committee on Oversight and Accountability) have questions about the treatment of a Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) inmate Jason Galanis. In March, the congressmen issued letters to U.S. Attorney Damian Williams (Southern District of New York) and BOP Director Colette Peters seeking information on whether or not there was interference with Galanis’ ability to get home confinement. The interference, the congressmen believe, relates to information Galanis has on his former business partner Hunter Biden. Those letters received no response and now subpoenas for additional documentation were sent today to both the BOP and Southern District of New York.

Galanis is serving a 189-month prison sentence which was imposed by United States District Judge P. Kevin Castel in the Southern District of New York. He pled guilty on January 31, 2020 for participation in the Gerova and Tribal Bond Schemes. Prosecutors said Galanis was part of a scheme that persuaded an entity affiliated with South Dakota’s Oglala Sioux Nation to issue bonds. Galanis and others were accused of fraudulently inducing pension funds to invest in the bonds through an investment adviser firm they controlled. At the time of sentencing, Acting U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said Galanis orchestrated two multimillion-dollar fraud schemes and “… he and his codefendants engaged in market manipulation and the defrauding of shareholders, and they stole a large portion of the proceeds of tribal bonds that were intended to fund economic development projects.”

Galanis admits to his crimes, stating in a February 2024 interview, “… I accepted that I committed these crimes, and I deserved a lengthy sentence for my conduct, even offering from the time of my plea to provide prosecutors at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York with any information that would assist in the thorough disclosure of the fraudulent conduct of all parties. The offer was rejected.” This struck Galanis and his attorneys as odd since there was information that they believed could not only implicate others, but could also possibly lead to a reduction in sentence for Galanis if the information led to indictments.

Galanis was interviewed on his interactions with Hunter Biden at the federal prison camp at Maxwell AFB, Montgomery, Alabama, on February 23, 2024. Galanis started his deposition with, “I was a business partner of Hunter Biden and Devon Archer, among others, during the years of 2012 to 2015. Our business included the acquisition of an 85-year-old Wall Street firm, Burnham and Company, the $1.5 billion surviving division of Drexel, Burnham, Lambert, and, combining that with other businesses in insurance and wealth management we owned and acquired, with total audited assets, over $17 billion. Our objective was to build a diversified private equity platform, which would be anchored by a globally known Wall Street brand together with a globally known political name. Our goal, that is, Hunter Biden, Devon Archer, and myself, was to make billions, not millions.”

Setting aside the Biden connection, Galanis had health issues and received approval in 2023 from his institution (then FPC Pensacola) to be placed on home confinement under the CARES Act. The CARES Act allowed the BOP to place some inmates, mostly minimum security inmates with underlying health conditions, on home confinement in an effort to curb contagion during the COVID-19 pandemic. The CARES Act ended almost a year ago.

Galanis was approved by the Pensacola warden and his staff and referred to California, his home, for placement. On June 9, 2023, the BOP California staff confirmed their approval of Galanis’ home confinement in an email to FPC Pensacola. Then on June 12, 2023, the Committee on Oversight and Accountability announced that they were issuing a subpoena to Galanis’s co-conspirator Devon Archer relating to its inquiry into President Joe Biden’s business dealings. The following day after the committee announced it would subpoena Archer, Galanis’ home confinement approval was reversed. Galanis and his attorney, Mark Paoletta, understood from a former high-ranking BOP official that the SDNY prosecutors aggressively interacted with the BOP staff to oppose his release. Galanis and Paoletta believe that the home confinement was denied as a result of this intervention and now Jordan / Comer want more information. Galanis has appealed the decision with the BOP but he states that the BOP has provided inconsistent reasoning for the denial.

Galanis also says that he was sexually assaulted by a member of the prison staff at Pensacola. According to his interview in February, Galanis said the staff member persisted in sexually harassing him for many months, including lewd comments and attempts to get him alone where there were no cameras. Galanis further said, “At the time, I had hoped to receive home confinement, which would remove me from danger …. Unfortunately, the sexual harassment continued until early August [2023], when the prison correctional officer’s comments became more threatening.” Warden Salisbury at FPC Pensacola met with Galanis and she determined there was merit in Galanis’ claims and opened a sexual assault investigation. After further debriefings, Galanis was escorted to a vehicle, and driven by senior staff several hours to FPC Montgomery in Alabama where he is today.

Prosecutors across the country began to weigh in on home confinement during COVID-19. Despite the success of the program where nearly all of those granted home confinement completed their sentences without incident, many prosecutors believed such an action essentially reduced the prison term, something that did not sit well with them. However, the BOP has always maintained that while prosecutors may have provided their position on CARES Act home confinement, it was the BOP that had the final say.

In their letter to US Attorney Williams, Jordan / Comer state, “the Committees have received additional information that strongly suggests the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) has been retaliating against Mr. Galanis for his cooperation with the Committees’ inquiry.” The subpoenas will shine a light on whether or not that occurred.

A response to the subpoenas is due by May 17, 2024.