There’s a pattern of shady business emerging with former vice president Joe Biden’s family, and it all revolves around the career politician’s connections and political influence.

The latest evidence emerged this week with reports of Biden’s brother, Jim Biden, allegedly using his family name to scam investors in a healthcare scheme alongside Michael Lewitt, a big shot hedge fund manager who is also named in a federal lawsuit filed by Tennessee businessman Michael Frey this summer, the Knoxville News Sentinel reports.

Frey contends Biden’s brother and his business partners promised to sell his rural health care plan to investors and the White House, but instead attempted to cut him out and concocted a shell game that left him on the hook for millions in loans.

“The lawsuit takes direct aim at (Jim) Biden, painting him as a con artist who uses his ties to his brother – now a Democratic candidate for president – to lure his victims. The suit portrays Lewitt as a bully who uses threats of lawsuits to keep victims at bay,” according to the news site.

 

Basically, Frey and his wife Natalie developed a plan to take over failing rural hospitals and transform them into successful medical centers with outpatient services, and they partnered with an Alabama doctor Mohannad Azzam, who contracted with nursing homes, the News Sentinel reports.

By 2017 the partners were receiving offers to buy into their business, and the interest led Frey to Biden, who introduced him to Lewitt. The group worked with Florida based rural hospital operator Americore Health owner Grant White and arranged a sale to Americore for $7 million.

The money never came, but Biden and Lewitt promised Frey they were arranging for another hedge fund, Platinum Group USA, to buy Americore and fulfill the agreement, but that never happened.

“What followed was a classic fraudulent bait-and-switch,” according to the lawsuit.

Biden, Lewitt and Amer Rustom, owner of the Platinum Group USA hedge fund, concocted a $10 million deal for Frey and Azzam’s business, with some in loans from Lewitt’s hedge fund that Biden and Lewitt claimed would be repaid by investors, the News Sentinel reports.

The lawsuit claims Jim Biden and his wife even hosted a dinner to assure Frey and Azzam funding was on its way, but it never materialized. Eventually, Biden and Lewitt alleged they were pitching the business to Turkish investors and pushed for details on the business model they alleged were necessary to seal the deal, according to the lawsuit.

Instead, Frey later learned, Platinum Group and Biden submitted a proposal to the Turkish investment group Dogan Holdings that replaced references to Frey and Azzam’s business, Diverse Medical Management, with “Platinum Group Diverse Medical Management,” the lawsuit alleges.

Long story short, Frey and Azzam were scammed out of a lot of money and Lewitt is now allegedly threatening them with lawsuits to collect on loans Lewitt and Biden promised would be covered by investors.

The litigation comes with a mountain of text messages and emails to back up the claims, including one text message Jim Biden inadvertently sent to Frey that exposed the scheme.

The lawsuit against Jim Biden follows reports of similar swarmy schemes by Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, in the Ukraine and China during the lawmaker’s tenure as Obama’s vice president.

Joe Biden boasted last year of threatening to withhold $1 billion in U.S. aid to Ukraine if officials there refused to fire a prosecutor investigating the gas company that paid his son millions. The prosecutor, who was investigating corruption, was quickly removed and Hunter Biden continued to collect at least $50,000 a month from the company.

Hunter Biden has faced similar accusations of insider deals with major companies in China while his father oversaw relations with that country, though Joe Biden alleges he never, ever discussed business with his son.

Joe Biden faced similar questions about his son banking on the family name during the 2008 presidential election, when Tom Brokaw questioned Hunter’s $100,000 a year gig with a credit card company that also contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to his father’s campaign.

Then Senator Joe Biden lobbied heavily against a bill that would have made it easier for people to file for bankruptcy that the company just happened to oppose.

The lawsuit against Jim Biden also isn’t the first time he’s faced accusations of invoking Joe Biden’s name to make a buck.

Politico reported last month Jim Biden “told executives at a healthcare firm that the former vice president’s cancer initiative would promote their business” as part of an investment pitch for the Biden Cancer Initiative.

Those allegations stem from a different lawsuit against Jim Biden’s Platinum Global Partners by Integrate Oral Care, a company that produces an oral rinse used by cancer patients. Jim Biden allegedly told Integrate “his brother would be very excited about this product” in a bid to solicit an investment, according to the news site.

Now, “Integrate is suing James Biden’s business partners in Palm Beach County, Florida, alleging a breach of contract for failing to follow through on an agreement to invest $3 million in the firm,” Politico reports.