I guess maybe you just don’t have much experience in the investment industry.

Nobody gave money to Hunter Biden. They gave money to a fund that apparently Hunter had a stake in - BHR Partners. PE funds often create what’s known as advisory boards which the investment manager is required to consult on issues laid out in fund governing documents. That board is comprised of investors or other stakeholders in the fund, and the general purpose is to ensure that the manager has no conflicts, that interests of investors and the manager are properly aligned - that sort of thing.

Membership on those boards is never compensated, because that would create a conflict of interest on the part of the board members, who are tasked with looking out for the interests of all the stakeholders. Their comp is a seat at the table with the manager to guard their interests. But they are also fiduciaries of all other stakeholders. In fact often an offer of membership on the advisory board is part of the deal when investors put money into a fund.

In any event, there is nothing in that WSJ account that suggests anything nefarious, certainly not that Hunter Biden was personally paid over $1 bil (he wasn’t), or that Hunter’s role was anything more than relatively small investor (425k) and 10% stakeholder. He may not even have gotten all that 425k principle out yet (PE can take a while).

But the idea that anything about this story suggests that anyone gave “Hunter money instead of Goldman” is only laughable in its obvious ignorance of how PE works. The Chinese investors were giving money to whomever is the manager of the fund, not Hunter. Jonathan Li is identified in the article as the CEO, and it would be he and his team with whom investors were placing their money and hopes for returns.

Which happens all the time - investors don’t want to give all their investable assets to big IBanks - they diversify.