A reported former British special forces officer with ties to UK intelligence services is at the center of Joe Biden 's alleged 10 p...
A reported former British special forces officer with ties to UK intelligence services is at the center of Joe Biden's alleged 10 per cent stake in a dirty deal with China.
James Gilliar wrote a now-infamous email to Hunter Biden in 2017 suggesting 'the big guy' would own a tenth of the interest in a multi-million-dollar deal with Chinese oil behemoth CEFC through his son.
Though the email, allegedly referring to Joe Biden, was perhaps the most shocking among the tens of thousands on Hunter's abandoned laptop and has the greatest implications for American democracy – still little is known about Hunter's shadowy business partner.
An investigation of public records shows the 57-year-old is a former advertising salesman from rural England.
DailyMail.com spotted Hunter Biden's business partner James Gilliar (pictured) visiting a police station in Prague with his wife in November last year
Gilliar wrote a now-infamous email to Hunter in 2017 suggesting his dad would own a tenth of the interest in a deal with Chinese oil behemoth CEFC
The email, allegedly referring to Joe Biden, was perhaps the most shocking among the tens of thousands on Hunter's abandoned laptop last year
But in the span of ten years, Gilliar was mysteriously launched from that modest living into a high-flying life, consulting for an Emirati prince, running a political consultancy with top US government connections, orchestrating a nuclear power deal for the South Korean government, and even breeding racehorses with his glamorous Czech wife after upping sticks to Prague, DailyMail.com can reveal.
A new book on the Biden family based on material from Hunter's computer called, Laptop from Hell: Hunter Biden, Big Tech, and the Dirty Secrets the President Tried to Hide, reports that Gilliar is in fact a former member of the UK's special forces unit the SAS, which specializes in counter-terrorism, hostage rescue, and covert reconnaissance.
It is unclear how long he served in the corps or when he left, but he appears to have remained in close contact with the British intelligence services.
A long-time associate and another of Hunter's business partners in the Chinese deal, Tony Bobulinski, told Laptop from Hell author Miranda Devine that his nickname for Gilliar was 'MI6', the British foreign intelligence service to which the fictional spy James Bond belongs.
In another clue evidencing Gilliar's spy links, the Brit hired a fellow former UK 'diplomat' who he said was the ex head of MI6's Middle East division, to help with an energy project in Oman that was part of Hunter's business deal with the Chinese.
A leaked 2017 email from Gilliar to Hunter and associates titled, 'Expectations', details 'remuneration packages' for six people in the business venture with CEFC
The breakdown of the stake in the business included the 10% to the 'Big Guy', alleged to be a reference to Joe Biden
Hunter Biden was to be paid $850,000 in part of his arrangement with the Chinese firm, according to the emails
Long-time associate and another of Hunter's business partners in the Chinese deal, Tony Bobulinski (left) allegedly helped set up the joint venture between Hunter Biden and CEFC. The now-president reportedly thanked Bobulinski later in emails
Gilliar wrote in an April 2017 email to Hunter that David Holtom was 'former MI Six head of region' and that he had worked with him in the past.
Holtom emailed Gilliar the following month outlining a deal he secured from the Omani government for CEFC after 'several weeks of negotiating' covering an 'infrastructure fund', fisheries, an oil and gas refinery, ports and tourism.
On his LinkedIn page, Holtom simply lists 12 years with 'her majesty's forces' and a further nine with 'her majesty's diplomatic service', before he became an advisor to an Omani sheikh in 2011.
Gilliar and Holtom's intimate involvement in Hunter's Chinese deal is especially intriguing given the role of another British spy, Christopher Steele, in a scandal that dogged America's last presidency.
Hunter Biden's business dealings with CEFC China Energy are documented in the new book, Laptop from Hell, by New York Post columnist Miranda Devine
Steele was the author of the now infamous dossier detailing Donald Trump and his 2016 presidential campaign's alleged corrupt relationship with the Russian government, commissioned by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's campaign.
In previous years Steele had worked as the head of MI6's Russia desk.
But in contrast, according to public records, in the mid 2000s James Gilliar was just an advertising salesman in a rural village in Sussex, England, with a string of failed businesses, an ailing marriage and an interest in horses.
Born in 1964, he was the youngest of four children, who later became estranged according to family members.
In his 30s Gilliar lived in a $490,000 farmhouse in Suffolk, and sent his son to the local private school where his then-wife Claire worked as a Learning Support Assistant.
His first entrepreneurial role was at age 34 was in a marketing company established in 1998 with his father, but which ended up liquidating five years later with almost $300,000 in debts.
Aside from the leaked emails, the laptop also reportedly contained images of Hunter Biden smoking what appears to be a crack pipe and had lewd photos and videos of him performing sex acts with various women
Company records also list him as 'sales director' at a firm he set up, 8 Limited, between 2001-2009, which was also liquidated.
His marriage ended in divorce, and it appeared Gilliar was down on his luck – until he moved to the Czech Republic around 15 years ago.
The reported SAS veteran began working for the United Arab Emirates president's son in 2003 at his giant conglomerate SBK Holdings, awash with Emirati cash, according to a biography he sent to CEFC, recovered from Hunter's laptop.
It is unclear how the former sales executive suddenly became an advisor to a top Arab royal, but his turn of good fortune did not stop there.
The bio says Gilliar also worked from 2004 to 2010 as Advisor to the board of oil and gas-focused civil engineering company Bilfinger Berger Middle East, and from 2009 to 2016 as an advisor to infrastructure company Arcadis.
It also reveals that somewhere along the way Gilliar had received 'specialist training in Civil / Military security operations and analysis, counter terrorism, close protection and firearms, armed and unarmed combat' and had expertise in 'Security and intelligence based analytics and systems.'
While working in Dubai, he hired his son to work with him as an IT specialist, and had a second son with his new wife, Erika KrajnÃková Gilliar.
The couple began breeding and training a stable of horses with top coaches in France, mingling with Europe and the Middle East's rich and titled.
In 2010 he founded European Energy and Infrastructure Group (EEIG), boasting 'strategic influences at the highest level within Washington, D.C.' and even 'represented the foreign ministry of Korea' on a nuclear power deal, according to the firm's website.
His bio for CEFC says he was an 'advisor on internationalization' to the South Korean Foreign ministry 2011-2016, after two years advising the chairman of South Korea's largest electric utility Kepco.
He also founded EEIG subsidiary J2cR in 2015, boasting 'top-level former U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice officials' with services including 'lobbying' and 'political intelligence' and 'focused on homeland security and transnational trade'.
It would be through his partner in J2cR, Rob Walker, that he would meet Hunter Biden.
Walker is a former Clinton administration official and his wife, Betsy Massey Walker, served as Jill Biden's assistant when she was Second Lady.
Gilliar was thrust into the spotlight last fall when Hunter's laptop, abandoned at a Delaware computer store, was leaked to the press.
Emails from the laptop revealed Hunter had partnered with his brother Jim and three other businessmen including Gilliar to launch a joint venture with Chinese energy giant CEFC, after dangling his family connections to the foreign investors.
The discovery sparked fears that the Chinese government would attempt to use the financial relationship to exert pressure on Joe Biden.
In 2018 CEFC chairman Ye Jianming was arrested on corruption charges in China and his right hand man was convicted of bribery in the US, while Hunter's deal has landed him under a federal criminal investigation.
In May 2017 Gilliar sent an email to Hunter, Bobulinski and Walker, about proposed 'remuneration packages' for the deal.
The British businessman suggested Hunter would receive an $850,000 salary plus a 20 percent stake in a company that owned half the joint venture with CEFC.
But Gilliar also listed a 10 percent stake to be held by Hunter 'for the big guy'.
Bobulinski, a former US naval officer, told reporters last year that the 'big guy' was Joe Biden.
Gilliar's family said the exposure of his involvement in the CEFC deal has not slowed his business – if anything it has helped.
His sister-in-law, Kim Gilliar, told DailyMail.com that although he 'keeps his cards close to his chest', the email scandal seems to have actually sparked more business opportunities for him.
Company disclosures show that in December 2020 Gilliar was awarded 15 million share options worth $13.75 million from a British-Australian metal mining company for securing a contract with giant Czech state-owned energy company CEZ.
And despite his continued major deal-brokering, Gilliar remains elusive, with no photographs of him to be found anywhere online – until DailyMail.com spotted the shadowy businessman visiting a police station in Prague with his wife in November last year.
However, Gilliar did not respond to our requests for comment.
The enigmatic entrepreneur was not the only one with intelligence agency links buzzing around Hunter during his partnership with the Chinese.
In an audio recording on Hunter's laptop, he refers to one of his CEFC business partners Patrick Ho as the 'spy chief of China.'
The Chinese businessman was later surveilled by US law enforcement as a foreign intelligence threat before he was convicted of bribery in 2018.
And in post-coital conversation with a prostitute caught on his webcam, Hunter said he believed a group of Russian drug dealers stole a second earlier laptop of his during a drug and booze-fueled bender in Las Vegas in the summer of 2018.
'They have videos of me doing this,' he said, referring to the filmed sex he just finished. 'They have videos of me doing crazy f***ing sex f***ing, you know.'
Hunter's debauched exploits raise the possibility that he was targeted as a vulnerable conduit to Joe Biden as part of multiple foreign intelligence operations – a possibility investigated by the Senate finance and security committees last year.
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