Judge tosses hedge fund suit against Joe Biden's son, brother

A judge has thrown out a lawsuit against Vice President Joe Biden's youngest son and brother over their 2006 purchase of a hedge fund firm, saying an investor failed to be specific enough in claiming that they underhandedly shoehorned him out of the deal. Stephane Farouze didn't lay out his allegations against Hunter Biden and James Biden "with any meaningful degree of particularity," Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Bernard J. Fried wrote in an order filed Friday. Farouze, now the London-based global head of fund derivatives for Deutsche Bank, filed his $10 million suit against the Bidens and their former business associate Anthony Lotito Jr. in 2008. Farouze said they schemed to gain control of his interest in the investment concern, Paradigm Cos. LLC, without buying him out. The Bidens' camp said Farouze never really owned the roughly 31 percent share he offered to sell them. Farouze's lawyer didn't immediately return a call Monday. The Bidens' lawyer, Nicholas Gravante Jr., said they "are grateful that they have been vindicated and that this case is now behind them." Lotito sued the Bidens separately over the Paradigm purchase. The two sides reached a settlement with confidential terms last December. Lotito had claimed the Bidens negotiated their own deal to buy the hedge funds behind his back and cheated him out of money. The Bidens had said he misrepresented himself and denied any wrongdoing. Hunter Biden, the vice president's son, was a Washington lobbyist for colleges and hospitals until he stepped down after his father became the Democratic vice presidential nominee last year.