State Department Spokesman Matthew Miller Advised Chinese Crypto Exchange Under Federal Investigation
New Biden official is worth up to $60 million, disclosures show
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller advised a Chinese cryptocurrency exchange under investigation for fraud, money laundering, and enabling Islamic terrorist groups to use its platform.
Before joining the Biden administration last month, the former MSNBC talking head and Obama administration official was a partner at the crisis communications firm Vianovo. The firm's roster of clients includes BAM Trading Services, the San Francisco-based subsidiary of Chinese crypto giant Binance, based on financial disclosures obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission in March sued Binance and its founder, Changpeng Zhao, in federal court for allegedly coaching its wealthy clients on how to evade regulations that bar Americans from trading cryptocurrency derivatives. The commission alleged that Binance executives discussed turning a blind eye to transactions conducted by Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group.
Miller's work for Binance's public relations firm could raise eyebrows as he reenters the public sector. But consulting work was highly lucrative for Miller, who was the director of the Obama Justice Department's Office of Public Affairs and communications director for embattled Sen. Bob Menendez (D., N.J.). Miller has between $30 million and $60 million in assets, including a $25 million to $50 million investment in a Vanguard investment fund, his disclosures show. Over the past calendar year, Miller received $85,000 in income from Vianovo and $786,435 from its affiliate, VNPG. NBCUniversal paid Miller $98,027 for his appearances on MSNBC, where Miller appeared frequently to trumpet the Trump-Russia collusion hoax.
Miller served a stint last year as special adviser to the National Security Council, where he led the government's "communications and outreach as part of our support for Ukraine's sovereignty and defense," according to Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The council has long had concerns that terrorists use cryptocurrency exchanges such as Binance. Last year, the agency asked Binance to block Russians from using its platform over the invasion of Ukraine. Binance resisted calls to "unilaterally" freeze all Russian accounts.
It is unclear what work Miller provided Binance, but Vianovo touts its specialty in providing crisis communications for companies facing lawsuits, investigations, or negative publicity. "Our services include risk assessment and planning, crisis communications, litigation support, ally development, congressional testimony preparation, and brand rehabilitation," the company says. On its website, Vianovo boasts a roster of clients including IBM, Walmart, and the NBA. But financial disclosures indicate that the firm has clients it does not publicly tout, including Binance, Google, and the business empire of Democratic megadonor Pierre Omidyar.
The firm says it no longer counts Binance as a client. "Vianovo provided Binance US with communications counsel," Vianovo managing director Rob Norcross told the Free Beacon. "That work ended earlier this year."
Federal regulators asserted that Binance and Zhao have "common ownership and control" of BAM Trading Services, which also operates as "Binance.US." Zhao once referred to the Chinese parent company as a "pirate ship" in the crypto industry, with Binance.US serving as a "navy boat," according to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission complaint.
Binance and Zhao have faced additional scrutiny for hiding extensive links to China. According to the Financial Times, Zhao repeatedly instructed Binance employees to lie about the company's presence in China because of the heightened scrutiny the relationship would bring the company.
Binance, the world's largest crypto market, has hired a stable of attorneys and lobbyists to handle the federal investigations. Zhao and the company recently hired the white-shoe law firm Latham & Watkins and lobbyists from Hogan Lovells, ICE Miller Strategies, and Fierce Government Relations to lobby Congress and federal agencies, according to disclosures. Catherine Coley, the former CEO of Binance.US, recently hired a former Commodities Future Trade Commission official to represent her in anticipation that she will be in the crosshairs of federal investigators.
Binance did not respond to requests for comment. A State Department spokesperson responded to say that "personnel across the administration follow the highest ethical standards, including recusals when appropriate."
Update May 2, 10:50 a.m.: This piece has been updated to included comment from the State Department.
Published under: Biden Administration , CCP , China , Crypto , Hamas , Lobbying , Regulation , State Department
Democrat Congresswoman Met With Alleged Chinese Spies at 'Secret Police Station' in NY
Rep. Grace Meng (D., N.Y.) attended several events with alleged operatives for the Chinese communist government, at least one of which took place at a New York City nonprofit's headquarters that U.S. officials say was a front for a secret Chinese police station.
The alleged spies, Lu Jianwang and Chen Jinping, were charged for running a "secret police station" in the Manhattan office of the America Changle Association, a nonprofit where the two men have served as chairman and commander-in-chief, respectively. Meng attended several events hosted by the organization with the alleged operatives, including the ribbon-cutting for the office in question, according to the Daily Caller.
Prosecutors said the men admitted to deleting digital correspondence with Chinese officials after learning of the federal investigation.
"While Congresswoman Meng has likely encountered him at local community events, she has no personal relationship with [Lu Jianwang], and was unaware of any allegations against him until last Monday’s news," Meng’s press secretary told the Daily Caller.
Meng attended several events with the arrested men, according to the Daily Caller:
On September 26, 2016, Meng apparently participated in a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the launch of America Changle’s Manhattan headquarters — the same office where Lu Jianwang allegedly operated a CCP police station — according to a report from Chinese state-run news outlet FJsen.com’s social media account.
Photos included in the news report show Meng standing right beside Lu Jianwang during the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
More recently, Meng presided over the ceremonial transfer of power between then-outgoing America Changle chairman Zhang Zikuo and Lu Jianshun during a June 2021 event held at the Royal Queen Restaurant located in Flushing, New York, Chinese-language photos, video and reports show. The restaurant is located within Meng’s congressional district.
Following Lu Jianshun’s inauguration, Meng delivered a speech in Mandarin Chinese during which she praised America Changle for their "contribution" to Chinese people in New York, according to a DCNF translation of video from the event. The footage shows that Meng’s speech was then followed by an address given by Chen Jinping, America Changle’s "commander-in-chief," whom the FBI also arrested on April 17.
Previously unearthed photos show Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) and New York City mayor Eric Adams (D.) also rubbing shoulders with Lu.
The report comes after a federal watchdog found U.S. officials don’t know how much taxpayer money is going toward the CCP. The U.S. Government Accountability Office said data on money to China are "incomplete and sometimes inaccurate."
Secretive Su: Biden Admin Won’t Release Records of ‘Transparent’ Labor Secretary Nominee Julie Su
The Biden administration is stonewalling public records requests regarding acting labor secretary Julie Su, whose confirmation to lead the agency on a permanent basis faces an uphill battle in the closely divided Senate.
Conservative watchdog group American Accountability Foundation last month petitioned the Labor Department for all official correspondence between Su and the nation’s most powerful unions, whose business dominates her public calendars. Last week, the agency blew by its deadline to provide the documents as Su moved toward a confirmation vote in the U.S. Senate.
The watchdog said the administration's failure to provide documents from Su's time at the Labor Department ahead of a potential vote "thickens the cloud already hanging over this confirmation process."
"The American people and members of the Senate who are considering her confirmation right now deserve to know the full truth about Julie Su and it is disgraceful that they are being kept in the dark," the group said in a statement. "The fact that the acting head of the Department of Labor right now is Julie Su herself only thickens the cloud already hanging over this confirmation process."
The Labor Department’s lack of timely transparency cuts against Su’s own defense of her record. Under questioning from Sen. Mitt Romney (R., Utah) in a confirmation hearing last month, Su described herself as "someone who is communicative, transparent, and really sees that there is tremendous areas of common ground between employers who are job creators and employees who do the work." Her nomination made it through committee on Wednesday and set up a full Senate vote. She must win over a number of Democratic moderates who have had second thoughts after supporting her 2021 confirmation as deputy labor secretary.
The Labor Department did not respond to a request for comment.
Su’s public calendars, on which American Accountability Foundation based its information requests, suggest that she has maintained the kinds of close ties to unions that she cultivated during her rise in California’s Democratic politics, where public employee unions hold massive sway.
According to the calendars, Su has a quarterly check-in with Neal Bisno, the president of the SEIU. She also joined a May 12, 2022 SEIU "wage theft" event in support of a controversial bill then moving through the California legislature to hand power over fast food wages and benefits to a special state council. California Democrats passed the bill, AB 257, but a judge has temporarily put the measure on hold in response to a lawsuit.
Meanwhile, Su notably had zero meetings with business leaders as deputy labor secretary. It was Romney noting this fact last month that prompted Su to tout her "transparency."
Su’s calendars also showcase her commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. For example, she participated in a meeting about "equity in procurement"—to ensure that government contracts go to business owners who are not white or straight—and a panel about incorporating gender and race into workplace safety.
Su was an early supporter of critical race theory, an academic idea that Western society is inherently racist. In a recently unearthed essay, she and a co-author decried the notions of "colorblindness" and "individuality." They called for political lawyers and race scholars to work together for progressive social justice and claimed that "Critical Race Theory and its related schools have provided a framework for diverse alliances to combat the anti-affirmative-action assault … and to stem racial and gender violence."
Last April, per her calendars, Su met with Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, the former California lawmaker who now leads one of the state’s most powerful unions. Gonzalez Fletcher authored California’s controversial "gig worker" law, AB 5, which was meant to improve work conditions for independent contractors but led to job losses and pay cuts for many of them. Unions have pressed Democrats to federalize the law, and Biden promised to use it as a national model in an endorsement he has since scrubbed from his campaign website.
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