'If you have to sleep with her, do it': a Hunter Biden-linked firm's pursuit of Russian money

A few months before Russian oligarch Elena Baturina wired $3.5 million in February 2014 to a Hunter Biden-linked firm, his business associates scrambled to secure U.S. bank approval because she was on a federal government "watch list" for financial transactions, according to never-before-revealed emails and documents.

The document trove may be viewed here:

 JTN Baturina Exclusive - Cooney Emails [REDACTED].pdf

The memos, obtained by Just the News, show Hunter Biden's primary business partner, Devon Archer, and business associates Jason Galanis and Bevan Cooney, began working in November 2013 to overcome regulatory and compliance issues so they could take the Russian billionaire's money in one of their companies, called Burnham. 

Baturina had asked the men to set up a U.S. bank account for her as part of the transactions, the memos show.

"She's so rich she has Burnham money stuck in her sofa. Good luck Archie," Galanis wrote Archer in late 2013 about the ongoing effort to lure her investment and get a bank account open for Baturina. 

"If you have to sleep with her, do it for the team," Galanis implored.

Baturina, the wife of former Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov, became Russia's first female billionaire through her real estate empire before corruption allegations against her in Moscow in 2011 forced her to move to London.

In London, she became a prominent philanthropist and has always denied wrongdoing.

The emails reviewed by Just the News show Archer's business associates were aware of the controversies surrounding Baturina before they pursued the business relationship with her.

For instance, Galanis in November 2013 sent Bevan Cooney a link to Baturina's Wikipedia profile and quickly followed up with a 2011 Daily Mail article about her recent money and legal problems. The headline read: "Police raid offices of Russia's richest woman in £270m fraud probe — but has she fled to London?"