President Biden will ring in 2023 at the tropical island home of wealthy business owners Bill and Connie Neville — who earlier this month were among the select group admitted to the president’s first White House state dinner.
The Nevilles made the 338-person guest list for the Dec. 1 gathering of billionaires, celebrities and politicians in honor of French President Emmanuel Macron after previously lending their three-bedroom beachfront villa to Biden.
Biden traveled to St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands late Tuesday with first lady Jill Biden and other members of his family to celebrate the New Year — and potentially to decide whether to launch a 2024 re-election bid. He left the frigid continental US after a Christmas weekend winter blast killed at least 65 people and canceled more than 10,000 flights.
It’s unclear if the vacation was planned before or after Biden treated the Nevilles to the lavish banquet on the taxpayers’ dime — but the first family is not paying for use of the home, which features an in-ground pool, lush landscaping and sweeping views, along with direct beach access.
“[First son] Hunter’s laptop and other evidence show Biden’s record of converting his public office into private gain,” said Tom Fitton, president of the conservative transparency group Judicial Watch. “So it is no surprise Biden is getting a free luxury vacation from a wealthy donor who ‘coincidentally’ received primo White House state dinner tickets.”
Biden has stayed at the Neville home on “many” occasions, according to a VRBO listing that advertises a daily rate beginning at $700 for ordinary guests.
Bill Neville, 60, is the founder of software company US Viking, which makes a news content platform called ENPS that’s marketed by the Associated Press. He and Connie, 59, are originally from Alabama.
Viking’s ENPS software is used by 800 news outlets including the BBC and ESPN, according to a profile by the Virgin Islands Economic Development Authority. The platform allows outlets to “easily search multimedia content,” “easily adapt stories for digital publishing” and “seamlessly integrate with digital and social media platforms,” according to a promotional webpage.
Richard Painter, the chief White House ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush, told The Post Wednesday that it’s “extremely difficult to prove” corrupt intent in official acts such as handing out state dinner invites in exchange for kickbacks such as free vacation rentals, even if the timing seems suspicious.
“If it was a quid pro quo — a state dinner in return for a vacation house, that would be a problem. But you usually can’t prove those quid pro quos,” said Painter, who ran for Congress in Minnesota as a Democrat in 2018 and 2022. “The overarching problem … is the rich tend to have access here to the president. And you often give the president free use of your place. And then somehow, miraculously of course, you get invited to a state dinner. And you know, this is lifestyles of the rich and famous.”
However, Painter added, Biden must report the gift on his annual financial disclosure form. Biden did not do so for prior trips to the same home while vice president, possibly running afoul of a false-statements law, though people are “almost never” prosecuted because it’s “very hard” to prove gifts were omitted with an intent to deceive, the ethics expert explained.
The Nevilles gave more than $10,000 to Biden’s 2020 campaign and to the Biden Victory Fund, according to Federal Election Commission records. They also donated to an array of other elected officials, including Sens. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Joe Manchin (D-WV).
The Nevilles were contacted by The Post for comment both through a Virgin Islands realtor with whom they work, as well as through a friend.
The realtor on Tuesday said the couple did not wish to identify themselves or disclose their financial arrangement with the Bidens and on Wednesday referred The Post’s questions to the White House.
“As they have done previously, the president and the first lady are staying at the home of their friends Bill and Connie Neville,” an administration official confirmed to The Post.
Biden has a habit of staying for free at the homes of wealthy supporters, raising ethics concerns.
The president’s vacations are an avenue of potential oversight by House Republicans, who are vowing to probe the Biden family’s finances when they retake the majority next week.
Biden previously stayed for free at the nine-bedroom Kiawah Island, SC, home of donor Maria Allwin, where he had vacationed multiple times as vice president beginning in 2009.
A source close to Allwin said at the time that the first couple “expressed an interest” to Allwin about a visit and asked to use her home. Maria, the widow of hedge fund founder James Allwin, agreed.
“They’ve never paid,” the source told The Post.
Biden has twice as president stayed at the Nantucket home of billionaire David Rubenstein, co-founder of the private equity Carlyle Group, presumably for free.
When Biden receives free lodging, he’s supposed to disclose it on annual financial disclosure forms that are released publicly each May. The form requires the president and vice president to disclose free lodging worth more than $390. Ethics experts say the “personal hospitality” reporting exception on that form doesn’t cover instances where the homeowner isn’t present.
If Biden receives free lodging, he’s supposed to disclose it on annual financial disclosure forms that are released publicly in May. The form requires the president and vice president to disclose free lodging worth more than $390. Ethics experts say the “personal hospitality” reporting exception on that form doesn’t cover instances where the homeowner isn’t present.
Biden visited St. Croix at least five times between 2014 and 2016, according to local news reports — plus at least one additional time less than four months before launching his presidential campaign in 2019. It’s unclear if he stayed at the Neville home on each of those occasions or if additional visits went unreported.
Biden did not disclose any gifted lodging from the Nevilles on annual forms while he was vice president — though he also omitted known free trips to Kiawah Island from the forms.
The Nevilles’ recent state dinner experience wasn’t their first. They also attended the 2015 state dinner for Chinese President Xi Jinping around the time they began sharing their beach house with then-President Barack Obama’s second in command.
Painter said that other apparent corruption in Washington, including the scandal around political donations and lobbying efforts by disgraced cryptocurrency swindler Sam Bankman-Fried, is likely deserving of greater focus — even if the optics of presidential freebies raises eyebrows.
House Republicans say they plan to begin investigations next year into whether Biden corruptly profited from his public service, including through the foreign business dealings of his son Hunter and brother James Biden, particularly in countries where Joe Biden held sway as vice president, such as China and Ukraine.
Hunter Biden said in communications retrieved from a former laptop that he paid as much as “half” of his income to his father and a 2017 email described 10% for the” big guy” in a business deal being negotiated in China. Two former Hunter Biden associates have identified Joe Biden as the big guy.
After his father took office last year, Hunter, who also attended the recent state dinner, launched a new art career seeking as much as $500,000 for his novice works. The White House developed a plan for those art sales to be “anonymous” to theoretically prevent corruption, though ethics experts say that the arrangement could actually make matters worse.
