Hunter Biden‘s former business partner Devon Archer will do prison time for a scheme to cheat a Native American tribe out of $60 million.
On Monday, February 28th, Devon Archer was sentenced to a year and a day in prison for attempting to defraud one of the poorest Native American tribes in the nation, the Oglala Sioux in South Dakota.
Judge Ronnie Abrams, who stated that the crime was “too serious” to let Archer walk, ordered the conman to pay back more than $15 million in restitution on his own and to pay more than $43 million along with his codefendants, according to reporting by the New York Post.
“There’s no dispute about the harm caused to real people,” Judge Abrams said.
The convicted fraudster has maintained his innocence and intends to appeal his conviction and his sentence, according to statements in court from his attorney, Matthew Schwartz.
In brief statements to Judge Abrams just before Archer was sentenced, he and Schwartz claimed that he was taken advantage of by corrupt businessmen who wanted to use him in their scheme.
“He came under the influence of a person he trusted too much and didn’t ask enough questions,” Schwartz claimed.
Archer said it was “nothing less than surreal” that he had been convicted for this crime and was facing a prison sentence.
“I was doing too many things at once and not paying enough attention,” Archer said regarding his involvement in the fraud.
“I have deep remorse for the victims of the crime,” he said, adding that he was also sorry for the pain he had caused his friends and family.
Archer and Hunter Biden served together on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings. Federal prosecutors are supposedly investigating Hunter for his shady business dealings with both Burisma and various Chinese companies.
The Washington Free Beacon reported last month that the State Department under Joe Biden had impeded a federal investigation into Hunter’s work for Burisma, according to two Republican senators.
