NEW YORK, December 8. /TASS/. Hunter Biden, the son of US President Joe Biden, was charged with nine counts of tax evasion, according to an indictment uploaded to the database of the US District Court for the Central District of California.
He is accused of failure to file and pay taxes, evasion of tax assessments and filing false or fraudulent tax returns.
"The Defendant engaged in a four-year scheme to not pay at least $1.4 million in self-assessed federal taxes he owed for tax years 2016 through 2019," the indictment says.
According to Fox News, he faces up to 17 years in prison on these charges.
Special counsel David Weiss says in the indictment that Hunter Biden "spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle rather than paying his tax bills."
"The Defendant spent approximately $1 million in 2016, $1.4 million in 2017, $1.8 million in 2018, and $600,000 in 2019. From January through October 15, 2020, the Defendant received more than $1.2 million in financial support that was used to pay various personal expenses <…>. Between 2016 and October 15, 2020, the Defendant spent this money on drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing, and other items of a personal nature, in short, everything but his taxes," the document says.
Earlier, Hunter Biden was indicted on three charges related to the purchase and ownership of firearms. One charge involves possessing a gun while being an illegal drug user, whereas the other two counts are related to lying about his drug addiction in paperwork filed when purchasing a handgun in October 2018.