Despite her upbeat email, the fundraising efforts hit a series of snags. The former Americore executive said that some of the issues pertained to legal restrictions on moving investment funds across borders, but the person said they were not versed in the details of those restrictions. The former executive recalled discussion at one point of trying to move money across a Middle Eastern border in the form of gold bars, but said they were not aware of any action taken on the idea.
One avenue that Jim Biden explored for getting investments to Americore was dependent on helping a payment processing company, Billerfy, gain access to the U.S. banking system, internal Americore emails show.
At the time, Billerfy processed payments for Canada’s then-largest crypto exchange, Quadriga, which has since collapsed. A lawyer who has represented Billerfy, Philip Holdsworth of Robbins Appleby in Toronto, did not respond to requests for comment and POLITICO was unable to reach the company directly.
A draft presentation that circulated inside Americore described Billerfy as an “open network for global payments” and described Jim Biden as Billerfy’s “chief global banking emissary.”
It is not clear what came of the talks. In an April 10 email to Jim Biden, Americore’s outside counsel, Christopher Anderson, expressed reservations about working with Billerfy. Anderson did not respond to requests for comment and a representative for Jim Biden did not respond to a question about Billerfy.
‘Dubai $$$’
As business in Qatar slowed down in mid-May for the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, the fundraising efforts stalled and tensions grew among the people involved.