ELLWOOD CITY, Pa. — When a health care startup dreamed of building a network of rural hospitals several years ago, it turned to Jim Biden.
Although he wasn’t a public health consultant or a medical expert, Jim Biden was the brother of Joe Biden, who had recently finished his term as vice president. The company’s chief executive believed Jim Biden would help provide the enterprise with “serious horsepower.”
But Jim Biden wasn’t the secret weapon that Americore Health Services was counting on. The company imploded in 2019, filing for bankruptcy amid a pile of lawsuits and a federal investigation into fraud allegations. Americore also accused Jim Biden of failing to repay $600,000 in loans.
Some of the Florida-based company’s hospitals closed, including one in Ellwood City, near the western edge of Pennsylvania, where medical equipment gathers dust and plywood covers broken windows. The only reminder of the bankrupt company’s brief tenure as the town’s biggest employer is a plaque honoring its donation to a nearby high school athletic field.
The fallout has extended to Washington, where Republicans are hunting for evidence that could be used to impeach Democratic President Joe Biden. It’s a playbook that they’ve already used on Joe Biden’s son Hunter, whose checkered history includes controversial overseas deal-making, accusations of tax evasion and a well-publicized struggle with addiction.
Republicans have not uncovered evidence directly tying the president to any wrongdoing. But his brother and son make attractive twin targets, having been close for decades and facing accusations of leveraging their last name into corporate paydays. House Republicans subpoenaed them on Wednesday as part of their investigation into a complicated web of transactions and relationships within the Biden family.
The latest focus has been on a series of payments that Republicans claim show the president benefited from his brother’s work, including more than $600,000 that Americore sent Jim Biden when the company was struggling to stay afloat.
Republicans have highlighted a $200,000 personal check from Jim to Joe Biden on the same day — March 1, 2018 — that Jim Biden received an equal amount from Americore.
House Democrats point to bank records they say indicate Jim Biden was repaying a loan provided by his brother, who had wire transferred $200,000 to him about six weeks earlier. The money changed hands while Joe Biden was a private citizen, after his stint as vice president and before announcing his successful White House bid.
“There is nothing more to those transactions, and there is nothing wrong with them,” said Paul Fishman, an attorney representing Jim Biden. “And Jim Biden has never involved his brother in his business dealings.”
He accused Republicans of pursuing “an unnecessary and intrusive review of Jim’s private banking records.”
White House spokesman Ian Sams said “extreme House Republicans won’t let the truth get in the way of abusing their power to conduct a smear campaign against the president.”
Jim Biden last year repaid Americore $350,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by the company’s court-appointed trustee. His lawyers for that proceeding said he played no role in the company’s collapse and all the money he received was for his consulting work, not loans, as the trustee had alleged.
Biden’s political adversaries have vowed to press forward with their investigations as an election year approaches.
Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, said he’s “troubled that Joe Biden’s ability to recoup funds depend on his brother’s cashing in on the Biden brand.”
Comer, R-Ky., is also scrutinizing a daisy chain of transactions beyond those involving Americore. The lawmaker claims records show that Joe Biden benefited from “laundered China money” when Hunter and Jim Biden began working with a politically connected Chinese energy company in 2017.
Jim Biden’s wife, Sara, cut a personal check to Joe Biden for $40,000 on Sept. 3, 2017, which came weeks after a payment from Chinese interests.
House Democrats said bank records show Joe Biden had wired $40,000 to his brother a little more than a month earlier, suggesting that the subsequent check was to repay a loan.
Representatives for Joe and Jim Biden did not provide explanations for the loans, which were made during a lucrative intermission in the president’s career as an elected official. In the two years after leaving the vice presidency, Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, made $15 million in book deals, speaking fees and university work.
Jim Biden’s varied career has included stints working as a nightclub owner, selling health and pension benefit services to labor unions and working for a construction company seeking contracts in the Middle East. Last year he said he was looking to purchase a professional rugby franchise in Philadelphia. Jim Biden also has a checkered financial history that includes lawsuits over unpaid bills, trouble with mortgage payments and liens for unpaid federal, state