James Biden, brother of President Biden, has agreed to pay $350,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging he played a role in the financial collapse of a rural hospital operator he advised, Americore Health LLC, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The proposed settlement resolves a bankruptcy trustee’s lawsuit alleging the hospital company wired Mr. Biden $600,000 in loans in 2018 that were never repaid, even when Americore was strapped for cash. Mr. Biden has contested the allegations, and argued that he has provided financial and consulting services that are of roughly equal value to the payments received, according to settlement papers filed on Friday in the Kentucky bankruptcy court where Americore sought chapter 11 protection in 2019. “Jim had a vision of revitalizing failing rural hospitals,” Mr. Biden’s lawyer, David Randolph Smith, told The Wall Street Journal on Monday. “He provided extensive financial and consulting services to Americore.” Carol Fox, the chapter 11 trustee for Americore, sued Mr. Biden earlier this year, saying that Mr. Biden received the loan money based on his “representations that his last name, ‘Biden,’ could ‘open doors’ and that he could obtain a large investment from the Middle East based on his political connections.” In reality, Ms. Fox said, Mr. Biden helped Americore get “an ill-advised bridge loan from a hedge fund that had a deleterious impact” on the company’s finances, pushing Americore to bankruptcy.
