Federal prosecutors have filed tax charges against Hunter Biden, a second criminal case against the US president’s son.
The nine-count indictment says he schemed to evade at least $1.4m (£1.1m) in federal taxes from 2016-19.
The three felonies and six misdemeanours include failure to file and pay taxes, false tax return and evasion of assessment.
Mr Biden, 53, was indicted in September on federal firearm charges in Delaware.
His lawyer said on Thursday night the new charges are politically motivated.
President Joe Biden is not mentioned in the indictment and the White House has not yet commented on it.
It comes as congressional Republicans place Hunter Biden’s business dealings at the centre of an impeachment inquiry into President Biden, who is seeking re-election next year.
If convicted in the tax case, Hunter Biden could face up to 17 years in prison.
US Department of Justice Special Counsel David Weiss has been investigating the Yale-educated lawyer and recovering crack cocaine addict since 2019.
In a 56-page indictment filed in California, prosecutors allege he spent his money on “drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing, and other items of a personal nature, in short, everything but his taxes”.
They say the president’s son “individually received more than $7 million in total gross income” between 2016 and 2020, but “willfully failed to pay his 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 taxes on time, despite having access to funds to pay some or all of these taxes”.
Getty ImagesHunter Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, responded to the new charges by saying that “if Hunter’s last name was anything other than Biden, the charges in Delaware, and now California, would not have been brought”.
Hunter Biden eventually paid all his taxes and fines back in 2020 – with the help of a loan from his personal attorney.
A chart inside the indictment outlines what Hunter Biden spent his money on.
Between 2016-19, he paid over $188,000 for “adult entertainment” and over $683,000 on “payments – various women”, according to the charge sheet.
Hunter Biden “continued to earn handsomely and to spend wildly in 2018”, prosecutors allege.
The indictment notes he made “substantial” income, including from a company he formed with a Chinese business conglomerate, the Ukrainian energy company Burisma and an unnamed Romanian businessperson.
As his income increased, so did his expenditures on an “extravagant lifestyle”, says the indictment.
