US Election and Politics News: Did Obama’s Netflix Buddies Fund Zelensky’s Presidential Bid with $11 Million?

In 2016, Netflix bought the rights to the Ukrainian TV series “Servant of the People” (Sluha Naroda) starring comedian Volodomyr Zelensky for 2017 to 2021 from Zelensky’s studio “Kvartal 95” for $11 million. US-based Netflix does not usually buy a lot of Ukrainian TV shows. The Netflix rights lapsed in 2021, but were renewed in March 2022, shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine 2022.

In 2018, Netflix signed a deal with Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Productions, despite their lack of experience as film producers. It is unclear how much Netflix paid the Obamas, as Variety reported. In March 2018, Penguin Random House signed the couple to a joint book deal that paid them a reported $65 million for their memoirs. In 2022, Obama won an Emmy for “Best Narrator” for his Netflix documentary series, Our Great National Parks.

Obama confidante Susan Rice sat on the Netflix board 2018 to 2020, when she joined the Biden administration as Director of the Domestic Policy Council. Rice will be leaving the White House May 26, 2023 after charges she neglected migrant children.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum May 24, 2022, Barack Obama’s first major backer George Soros said that Joe Biden was “very deeply involved in Ukraine, in fact I got to know him in Ukraine. He had a lot more patience than I had trying to convert Poroshenko into a democratic leader. I became fed up with him, and I told him so. Biden kept on trying to convert Poroshenko into a democrat.”

Looking at the timing of the Netflix deal, it is conceivable Netflix helped fund Zelensky’s bid to replace Petro Poroshenko as Ukrainian President on behalf of the Obama-Soros faction.

Zelensky’s TV series “Servant of the People” originally aired on the 1+1 channel in Ukraine, which is owned by shady oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, founder of the neo-Nazi Azov Brigade. Kolomoisky is also thought to be the real owner of corrupt natural gas company Burisma Holdings, as Peter Schweizer wrote in “Secret Empires”.

In 2017, Zelensky founded a political party also named “Servant of the People” and was elected President in 2019. His campaign was backed by Kolomoisky, who provided limousines and security. Former President Petro Poroshenko was shocked to be upstaged by an actor, who suddenly had a bigger budget and better media coverage than the President. After he won the election, Zelensky appointed several Kolomoisky allies to his staff, including chief of security Maksym Donets and lawyer Andriy Bogdan.

According to an investigation led by Volodymyr Ariev, an MP from Petro Poroshenko’s faction, Kolomoisky used Zelensky’s companies for money laundering. From 2012 to 2016, $41 million went from Kolomoisky’s Privatbank into the accounts of Zelensky and Co. companies, Ariev claims. According to the Pandora Papers released by Soros-funded OCCRP (Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project), Zelensky and his partners owned a network of offshore companies in the British Virgin Islands, Cyprus, and Belize.

Burisma Holdings paid Hunter Biden $1 million a year 2014-2017 to provide access to his father, Vice-President Joe Biden. In total, Burisma paid Hunter Biden at least $4 million from 2014 to 2019.

On May 22, 2015, as pressure from Burisma mounted to help the company get off the hook, Hunter Biden e-mailed then-Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken to set up a meeting. “Hunter was told he would be ushered through the diplomatic entrance of the State Department”, Miranda Devine writes in Laptop from Hell. In reality, Blinken “sent somebody downstairs to smuggle Hunter in the back door into his office so whe wouldn’t have to sign in”, Devine told Maria Bartiromo.

The meeting was scheduled for July 22. “Blinken testifed to the Grassley-Johnson inquiry that he couldn’t remember the conversation” and “claimed he had no idea Hunter was on Burisma’s board”, Devine writes.

In 2016, Joe Biden forced Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to fire Ukrainian Attorney General Victor Shokin, who was investigating corruption at Burisma. “Yesterday I met with General Prosecutor Shokin, and despite of the fact that we didn’t have any corruption charges, we don’t have any information about him doing something wrong, I specially asked him … to resign”, Poroshenko told Biden on a February 18, 2016 phone call.

On May 13, 2016, Biden congratulated Poroshenko on “getting the new Prosecutor General,” saying that it will be “critical for him to work quickly to repair the damage Shokin did.” “And I’m a man of my word,” Biden adds. “And now that the new Prosecutor General is in place, we’re ready to move forward to signing that one billion dollar loan guarantee.”

Speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations on Jan. 23, 2108, Joe Biden recounted getting Victor Shokin fired: “I had gotten a commitment from Poroshenko and from Yatsenyuk that they would take action against the state prosecutor. And they didn’t. So I said, nah, we’re not going to give you the billion dollars. … I’m going to be leaving here in, I think it was about six hours. I looked at them and said: I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money. Well, son of a bitch. (Laughter.) He got fired.”

After Joe Biden left office, Burisma halved payments to the Bidens on March 19, 2017, from $83.333 to $41.500 a month.

Hunter Biden claims to have resigned from the Burisma board in April 2019.

Ihor Kolomoisky was banned from entering the USA March 7, 2021, with the State Department saying he was involved in “significant corruption” and using his “political influence and official power for his personal benefit.” On Feb. 1, 2023, Ukrainian authorities raided the home of Ihor Kolomoisky.

According to former Ukrainian security service (SBU) agent Vasily Prozorov, the Ukrainian government diverted up to $800 million from the International Monetary Fund’s $17.5 billion Ukraine. Part of this money was used to fund Hillary Clinton’s campaign, funneled via Austrian Meinl Bank, Kolomoisky’s Privatbank and others, Prozorov charged. Ukrainian oligarch Victor Pinchuk donated more than $ 29 million to the “Clinton Foundation” 2012-2016, as Kate Matberg wrote.

Privatbank was nationalized 2016 after Kolomoisky was accused of embezzling $5.5 billion.