President Joe Biden’s younger brother Frank reportedly had ties to a consulting company that tried to lobby the Obama administration on behalf of an oil corporation in 2016.
In 2016, Frank Biden worked for Delmarva, a consulting firm that contacted Cassidy & Associate’s lobbyists to represent Chesapeake Petroleum and Supply in an effort to influence Congress and the Obama Defense Department while Joe Biden was vice president, according to CNBC.
Delmarva asked the lobbyists to encourage the Obama administration to “support wholesale lubricants and automotive supply distributor” and “market [Chesapeake’s] products to federal customers,” according to documents obtained by CNBC.
Vernon Simmons, senior vice president of Cassidy, reportedly targeted lawmakers to “promote direct sales of lubricant products & vehicle supplement equipment in DoD [Department of Defense].”
Frank Biden admitted he worked for Delmarva but denied having an extensive role in the company.
“I provided advice and counsel based on my business experience. I had very limited engagement with Delmarva,” Frank Biden said in a statement to CNBC.
Delmarva’s owner, Joseph Abruzzo, also said Frank Biden did not have a formal position until Joe Biden left office.
“Frank Biden and I began planning the business in 2015 and had discussions through 2016,” Abruzzo said. “The structural formation and Frank’s formal involvement began in 2017.”
This is not the first time Frank Biden has come under fire for trying to use his brother’s political position to advance his own financial interests.
In 2014, he and Abruzzo also became enmeshed in a complex racket that involved securing funding for a charter-school operation that, in turn, helped to effect a ban on horsemeat.
Abruzzo, a former Florida state senator, earmarked appropriations for Frank Biden’s charter-school operation under the condition that Biden use his connections to lobby for the ban. The cause had been advocated by oil heiress and animal activist Victoria McCullough, who had Abruzzo on her payroll.
Conservative journalist Peter Schweizer lays out details of the corrupt charter-school operation and many other ways the Biden family capitalized on its access to power in his 2020 book Profiles in Corruption.
Most recently, Frank Biden was criticized for using his brother’s election to the White House to promote his law firm and commitment to environmental issues.
This forced Biden’s White House to release a statement condemning Frank Biden’s attempt to advertise his connection to the president.
“The president’s name should not be used in connection with any commercial activities to suggest, or in any way that could reasonably understood to imply, his endorsement or support,” a White House official said in response.
Joe Biden also reportedly warned his brother about getting involved in business ventures that could tarnish the family name.
“For Christ’s sake, watch yourself,” he told Frank, according to Politico. “Don’t get sucked into something that would, first of all, hurt you.”
Headline USA’s Ben Sellers contributed to this report.
