This is WaPo so it may paywall for some. I suspect this may be archived elsewhere.
How Republicans overhype the findings of their Hunter Biden probe
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... den-probe/
[snip]
For instance, the second staff memo never says that Hunter Biden used “shell” companies — a term often associated with shady or illegal activity, even though a shell company is a legitimate entity. Comer once described such an entity as “a fake company … they don’t make anything. They don’t produce anything. They don’t provide a good or service.” He is not wrong about many shell companies,
but the memo lists real companies, with active websites and real business functions. (The third staff memo refers to just one “shell” company, which we will describe later.)
As for the $20 million in payments, Comer and other Republicans invoke this figure often.
A close reading of the memos, however, finds that only about $7 million can be directly attributed to Biden family members, mostly Hunter, while the rest went to “associates,” according to the memos. Yet Comer and other lawmakers misleadingly suggest all of the money went to the Biden family or, as some label it, “the Biden crime family.” No evidence has emerged that any of these funds can be traced to Joe Biden himself.
'[snip]
Hunter Biden’s decision to pursue business deals that at the time overlapped with his father’s policy brief as vice president was ill-advised and has caused political headaches for his father. Republicans are pursuing the case with vigor, but Comer undercuts the findings of his investigation by hyping what has been found.
He claims there were more than 20 “shell companies,” but upon inspection most of the companies named had legitimate business transactions or investments. He claims the Bidens received more than $20 million from foreign sources, leaving off the caveat in the staff reports that two-thirds of the payments went to Hunter Biden’s business partners.
Comer would have more credibility if he stuck to documented facts — such as saying precisely that Hunter Biden received $7 million from foreign sources. He earns Three Pinocchios.
[snip][end]
Let's review. The so-called "shell" companies do not meet the definition of the term. (They were not fraudulently created to hide transactions without doing any actual business).
Of the $23 million, yes, $7 million went to Hunter. He in turn transferred some to a few other Biden family members. None went to his father Joe. 2/3 of it, the overwhelming amount, went to his business partners, some of which like Archer are now "whistleblowers" against him. Archer BTW was the only one to really make use of the one thing on the list that is an actual shell company. For transactions not involving Hunter.
We can debate whether some of the entities that paid Hunter have close ties to their governments. Clearly this is the case with CEFC. But the title of this post is false -- most of it came from foreign business entities, not foreign governments, most of whom have no lobbying interests before the U.S. government. Hunter may have been trading on his name, who knows whether he did what to deserve these payments (he did offer legal representation and investment opportunities), but he was not acting as a foreign agent. Unlike, say, Paul Manafort.
