A former business associate of James Biden has agreed to plead guilty to conspiring to defraud Medicare of $51 million through a lab-testing company connected to the President’s brother.
Last week, court filings from the Justice Department revealed that Keaton Langston, 39, confessed to utilizing pharmacies, durable medical equipment companies, and a laboratory where he had a financial stake to charge for unnecessary tests and orders.
James Biden, aged 75, has not been accused of any criminal wrongdoing and has aimed to separate himself from Langston. Joey Langston, the father of Langston, was also connected to the first brother.
In May 2017, Keaton Langston established Fountain Health, a laboratory company that offered services to Americore Health, a rural hospital operator, which eventually filed for bankruptcy.
Records show James Biden was involved with Fountain Health in 2017 before connecting with Americore, which provided him with $600,000 in loans in 2018 as he allegedly vowed to use his political connections to secure foreign investors.
James allegedly passed $200,000 of the funds to Joe Biden as repayment for a loan.
According to Politico’s report in February, shortly after the lab firm was established, Joey Langston emailed James Biden, his son Keaton, and three others on July 12, 2017, regarding an upcoming “meeting for Fountain Health partners.”
“Jim will report to the group the results of his discussions earlier today with a contact at [Blue Cross Blue Shield],” the elder Langston wrote. “There will also be a discussion about how to proceed with the Union contacts that have been made by Jim and Keaton, within the last two weeks.”
Paul Fishman, an attorney representing James Biden, did not respond immediately to a request for comment. However, he previously stated that his client “conducted himself ethically and honorably in all his business dealings.”
Keaton Langston agreed in September to repay Americore $240,000 in a civil settlement. James Biden agreed in 2022 to repay Americore $350,000.
The Bidens and the Langstons have had financial ties for several years.
ProPublica reported that the senior Langston hosted fundraisers for Joe Biden during his time as a senator.
In February, during questioning by House impeachment investigators, Joey Langston revealed that he had loaned James Biden $800,000, with the majority of payments made toward the end of the Obama-Biden administration in 2016. However, he stated that only $400,000 of the loan had been repaid.
The affluent Mississippi attorney pleaded guilty in 2008 and received a three-year federal prison sentence for his involvement in a scheme to bribe a judge during a dispute over legal fees related to asbestos cases.
He was seeking to overturn his conviction when he made loans to the then-vice president’s son.
Joey Langston’s alleged co-conspirator in the bribes case, attorney Dickie Scruggs, was involved in a second prosecution for attempting to bribe a different judge.
James Biden was wiretapped by the FBI in 2007 as part of its investigation of the second bribery case, the Washington Post reported in December.
At that time, James was in talks with Scruggs and conspirator Tim Balducci about the establishment of a law firm where he, his nephew Hunter Biden, and his wife Sara would be employed.
Then-Sen. Biden went from an opponent of federal legislation to sanction tobacco companies for lying about the addictiveness of cigarettes to a supporter after Scruggs — who planned a multibillion-dollar lawsuit — paid James Biden’s lobbying firm $100,000 in 1998, the Washington Post reported.
“I probably wouldn’t have hired him if he wasn’t the senator’s brother,” Scruggs told the paper.
Scruggs also flew Joe Biden to a fundraiser on his private plane, the Washington Post reported.
Joe Biden has consistently asserted that he “never” talked business with his son or brother. He reiterated in December and again in March that he “did not” interact with their partners, including foreign contacts in countries where he wielded influence as vice president.
Evidence including photos, emails and witness statements indicate that Biden actually interacted with his son and brother’s associates from two Chinese government-linked business ventures and their patrons from Kazakhstan, Mexico, Russia and Ukraine.
James Biden was a partner with his first son, Hunter, in numerous ventures and purportedly didn’t always hold back about the approach he was advocating to investors.
“We’ve got people all around the world who want to invest in Joe Biden,” James allegedly said in the early 2000s as he and Hunter were in the process of acquiring investment bank Paradigm, according to a 2021 book by Politico reporter Ben Schreckinger.
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