This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Hunter Biden's suspected international business dealings long have been in the news. After all, he's gotten payments of millions from interests in China, Russia, and Ukraine, sometimes for what is not clearly a service that was provided.

Now a new report puts Jim Biden, Joe Biden's brother, in the spotlight.

Affidavits uncovered by the Daily Mail charge that Jim was "at the center of a $140 million settlement between a U.S. construction company and Saudi Arabia in 2012."

And, the Mail reports, "Biden was selected because Saudi Arabia 'would not dare stiff the brother of the vice president who would be instrumental to the deal."

The report explains the details come from legal documents in the case.

The case affidavits obtained by the publication said Jim Biden was at the center of the deal between Hill International and Saudi Arabia. The report said the documents show Jim Biden "told a former senior U.S. Treasury official working as a private investigator that he was hired … 'because of his position and relationship' to VP Joe Biden."

At the time, Hill was trying to obtain the return of the $140 million, and the company hired several law firms to work on the project.

"In an affidavit, the former Treasury official, Thomas Sullivan, described his sit-down interview with Jim Biden about being hired to negotiate with the Saudis. Sullivan claimed the president's brother told him: 'Of course, the [Biden] name didn't hurt,' and Jim's wife Sara, who was present, allegedly said that Joe and his brother 'told each other everything,'" the report said.

Sullivan's testimony also included, "I asked specifically if he had attended a meeting with the Saudi Ministry of Trade in mid-February 2012 to receive the final payment for the work Hill had performed. He answered that, to the best of his memory, he had been at such a meeting, and that the reason he had attended was 'because of his position and relationship' with his brother."

The debt was owed to the company for work on desalination plants dating back to the 1980s, the report said.

V. Thomas Lankford confirmed the dealings, the report said. In a May 2022 affidavit, he described how his law firm was cut out of the process.

"After many delays, a meeting was finally scheduled for mid-February, 2012, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The Professional Firms were excluded from this meeting. Hill, acting through [its CEO, Irvin] Richter, sent Jim Biden – the then sitting vice president's brother. Richter confided that he selected Biden because KSA [the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia] would not dare stiff the brother of the vice-president who would be instrumental to the deal."

The issue is before Congress again as the Republican-majority House has promised extensive investigations into alleged influence peddling by Hunter Biden, and other schemes involving other members of the Biden clan.

Sullivan confirmed he later talked with Joe Biden.