Devon Archer, a former business partner of President Joe Biden’s son Hunter, was sentenced to federal prison for a year and one day by Manhattan Judge Ronnie Abrams on Monday.
Archer was sent to jail over his plan to defraud the Oglala Sioux tribe of almost $60 million. He was first convicted of the fraud scheme in a 2018 jury trial, but his conviction was later overturned that same year. The conviction was then reinstated by the court of appeals in New York in 2020.
Before his arrest, Archer and Biden both sat on the board of Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian energy company.
Biden has not been accused of being involved in Archer’s fraud scheme and authorities do not believe he has a connection.
As part of his sentencing, Archer was also ordered to pay his victims $15 million cash in restitution, and with his co-defendants repay a total of $43 million.
Archer’s lawyer, Matt Schwartz, said his client maintains his innocence and intends to appeal the ruling. He said his client was fooled and taken advantage of by a corrupt businessman.
“Mr. Archer is obviously disappointed with today’s sentence, and intends to appeal. It is unfortunate that the judge, who has previously expressed concern that Mr. Archer is innocent of the crimes charged and reiterated that belief today, felt that she was constrained not to act on her independent assessment of the evidence,” Schwartz told reporters Monday.
“He came under the influence of a person he trusted too much and didn’t ask enough questions,” he said.
Archer and his alleged co-conspirators bought more than $60 million in bonds from the Oglala Sioux tribe and misused them to try and “build a financial services mega-company” instead of holding them for the annuity.
“Archer became a key player in the scheme, anticipating that, when the scheme succeeded, he would helm the resulting conglomerate and, ultimately, reap massive profits from its sale,” prosecutors said in a memo released earlier this month.
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The Horn editorial team