A post shared on Facebook claims to show a BBC News report about Bellingcat journalists finding out that Hunter Biden was involved in the Ukrainian utensil industry and the “monopoly on Christianity in Ukraine.”
Screenshot/Facebook
Verdict: False
Neither BBC News nor Bellingcat reported this allegation. There is no evidence for these claims.
Fact Check:
Prosecutors alleged in a recent filing that cocaine was found in Biden’s gun poach in 2018, according to Politico. Biden is currently charged with lying about drug use on a form when he purchased a firearm, the outlet reported.
Social media users have been sharing claims that BBC News and Bellingcat reported on corruption in Ukraine linked to Ukraine’s church utensil industry and Biden. One user wrote, “BC: Bellingcat journalists have obtained documents indicating Hunter Biden’s connection with the production of church utensils in Ukraine.”
“As a result – Hunter Biden produces candles for Ukrainian churches. And the market of church utensils in Ukraine only for 2022 was 350 million dollars,” the Facebook partially reads.
There is no evidence that BBC News or Bellingcat made any such allegations against Biden. Check Your Fact reviewed both outlets’ websites and did not find any reporting matching the one in the post. Neither did a search of both organization’s respective social media accounts on X.
Representatives for both organizations denied the claim. Eliot Higgins, the founder and creative director of Bellingcat, said the video was fake in a Jan. 6 tweet.
Another fake Bellingcat/BBC video has appeared, this time claiming we’ve investigated Hunter Biden. It’s the weirdest one yet pic.twitter.com/3WLwHFEgv6
— Eliot Higgins (@EliotHiggins) January 6, 2024
“Another fake Bellingcat/BBC video has appeared, this time claiming we’ve investigated Hunter Biden. It’s the weirdest one yet,” Higgins tweeted.
A BBC spokesperson told Check Your Fact that the video was fake. (Did Pope Francis Say That Jesus Was Born During A Census Taken By King David?)
Check Your Fact has previously debunked fake BBC/Bellingcat videos.