title: Pennsylvania

text: Intercity passenger rail transit is provided by Amtrak, with the majority of traffic occurring on the "Keystone Service" in the high-speed Keystone Corridor between Harrisburg and Philadelphia's 30th Street Station before heading north to New York City, as well as the "Northeast Regional" providing frequent high-speed service up and down the Northeast Corridor. The "Pennsylvanian" follows the same route from New York City to Harrisburg, but extends out to Pittsburgh. The "Capitol Limited" also passes through Pittsburgh, as well as Connellsville, on its way from Chicago to Washington, D.C. Traveling between Chicago and New York City, the "Lake Shore Limited" passes through Erie once in each direction. There are 67 short-line, freight railroads operating in Pennsylvania, the highest number in any U.S. state. With more than four million inter-city rail passengers in 2018, Philadelphia's 30th Street Station is Amtrak's third busiest train station in the nation after Penn Station in Manhattan and Union Station in Washington, D.C. and North America's 12th-busiest train station overall.


title: Pennsylvania

text: PennDOT owns of the of roadway in the state, making it the fifth-largest state highway system in the United States. The Pennsylvania Turnpike system is long, with the mainline portion stretching from Ohio to Philadelphia and New Jersey. It is overseen by the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission. Another major east–west route is Interstate 80, which runs primarily in the northern tier of the state from Ohio to New Jersey at the Delaware Water Gap. Interstate 90 travels the relatively short distance between Ohio and New York through Erie County, in the extreme northwestern part of the state.


title: Pennsylvania

text: Primary north–south highways are Interstate 79 from its terminus in Erie through Pittsburgh to West Virginia, Interstate 81 from New York through Scranton, Lackawanna County and Harrisburg to Maryland and Interstate 476, which begins north of the Delaware border, in Chester, Delaware County and travels to Clarks Summit, where it joins I-81. All but of I-476 is the Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The highway south of the Pennsylvania Turnpike is officially called the "Veterans Memorial Highway", but is commonly referred to colloquially as the "Blue Route".


title: Pennsylvania

text: The port of Pittsburgh is the second-largest inland port in the United States and the 18th-largest port overall; the Port of Philadelphia is the 24th-largest port in the United States. Pennsylvania's only port on the Great Lakes is located in Erie. The Allegheny River Lock and Dam Two is the most-used lock operated by the United States Army Corps of Engineers of its 255 nationwide. The dam impounds the Allegheny River near Downtown Pittsburgh.


title: Pennsylvania

text: Pennsylvania is home to eight major league professional sports teams: the Philadelphia Phillies and Pittsburgh Pirates of Major League Baseball, the Philadelphia 76ers of the NBA, the Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers of the NFL, the Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins of the NHL, and the Philadelphia Union of Major League Soccer. Among them, these teams have accumulated sevenWorld Series championships (with the Pirates winning five and Phillies winning two), 16 National League pennants (with the Pirates winning nine and Phillies winning seven), three pre-Super Bowl era NFL championships (all won by the Eagles), seven Super Bowl championships (with the Steelers winning six and the Eagles one), two NBA championships (both won by the 76ers), and seven Stanley Cup championships (with the Penguins winning five and Flyers winning two).


title: Pennsylvania

text: With five professional sports teams and some of the most passionate sports fans in the nation, Philadelphia is often described as the nation's best sports city.


title: Pennsylvania

text: In baseball, in addition to its two MLB franchises, Pennsylvania has minor league and semi-pro sports teams: the Triple-A baseball Lehigh Valley IronPigs and the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders of the Triple-A East; the Double-A baseball Altoona Curve, Erie SeaWolves, Harrisburg Senators, and Reading Fightin Phils of the Double-A Northeast; the collegiate summer baseball State College Spikes and Williamsport Crosscutters of the MLB Draft League; the independent baseball Lancaster Barnstormers and York Revolution of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball; the independent baseball Washington Wild Things of the Frontier League; the Erie BayHawks of the NBA G League; the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, and Hershey Bears of the American Hockey League; the Reading Royals and of the ECHL; and the Philadelphia Soul of the Arena Football League. Among them, these teams have accumulated 12 triple and double-A baseball league titles (RailRiders 1, Senators 6, Fightin Phils 4Curve 1), 3Arena Bowl Championships (Soul), and 11 Calder Cups (Bears).


title: Pennsylvania

text: The first World Series between the Boston Americans (which later became the Boston Red Sox) and Pittsburgh Pirates was played in Pittsburgh in 1903. Since 1959, the Little League World Series has been held each August in South Williamsport near where Little League Baseball was founded in Williamsport.


title: Pennsylvania

text: With the addition of the Philadelphia Union of the MLS, Pennsylvania now boasts three teams that are eligible to compete for the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup annually. The other two teams are Philadelphia Union II and the Pittsburgh Riverhounds. Both of the United Soccer League (USL). Within the American Soccer Pyramid, the MLS takes the first tier while the USL-2 claims the third tier.


title: Pennsylvania

text: Arnold Palmer, one of the 20th century's most accomplished professional golfers, comes from Latrobe, and Jim Furyk, a current PGA member grew up near in Lancaster. PGA tournaments in Pennsylvania include the 84 Lumber Classic played at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort, in Farmington and the Northeast Pennsylvania Classic played at Glenmaura National Golf Club in Moosic.


title: Pennsylvania

text: Philadelphia is home to LOVE Park across from City Hall, a popular location for skateboarding and host to ESPN's X Games in 2001 and 2002.


title: Pennsylvania

text: In motorsports, the Mario Andretti dynasty of race drivers hails from Nazareth in the Lehigh Valley. Pennsylvania racetracks include Jennerstown Speedway in Jennerstown, Lake Erie Speedway in North East, Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, and Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, which is home to two NASCAR Cup Series races and an IndyCar Series race. The state is also home to Maple Grove Raceway, near Reading, which hosts major National Hot Rod Association-sanctioned drag racing events each year.


title: Pennsylvania

text: There are also two motocross race tracks that host a round of the AMA Toyota Motocross Championships in Pennsylvania. High Point Raceway is located in Mount Morris, Pennsylvania, and Steel City is located in Delmont, Pennsylvania.


title: Pennsylvania

text: Horse racing courses in Pennsylvania consist of The Meadows near Pittsburgh, Mohegan Sun Pocono in Wilkes-Barre, and Harrah's Philadelphia in Chester, which offer harness racing, and Penn National Race Course in Grantville, Parx Racing (formerly Philadelphia Park) in Bensalem, and Presque Isle Downs near Erie, which offer thoroughbred racing. Smarty Jones, the 2004 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner, had Philadelphia Park as his home course.


title: Pennsylvania

text: In college football, three Pennsylvania universities compete in NCAA Division I, the highest level of sanctioned collegiate play in the sport: Penn State in the Big Ten Conference, Pitt in the Atlantic Coast Conference, and Temple in the American Athletic Conference.


title: Pennsylvania

text: Over their respective college football histories, Penn State claims two national championships (1982 and 1986) and seven undefeated seasons (1887, 1912, 1968, 1969, 1973, 1986, and 1994) and Pitt has won nine national championships (1915, 1916, 1918, 1929, 1931, 1934, 1936, 1937, and 1976) and had eight undefeated seasons (1904, 1910, 1915, 1916, 1917, 1920, 1937, and 1976). Penn State plays its home games at Beaver Stadium, a 106,572-capacity stadium that is the second largest stadium in the nation; the team is coached by James Franklin. Pitt plays its home games at Acrisure Stadium, a 68,400-capacity stadium it shares with the Pittsburgh Steelers; the team is coached by Pat Narduzzi. Over their respective histories, four additional Pennsylvania universities and colleges have won national college football championships: Lafayette in Easton (1896), Villanova in Villanova (2009), Penn in Philadelphia (1895, 1897, 1904, and 1908), and Washington & Jefferson in Washington (1921).


title: Pennsylvania

text: In college basketball, five Philadelphia and Philadelphia-area universities, collectively known as the Big Five, have a rich tradition in NCAA Division I basketball. National titles in college basketball have been won by La Salle (1954), Temple (1938), Penn (1920 and 1921), Pitt (1928 and 1930), and Villanova (1985, 2016, and 2018).


title: Pennsylvania

text: Pennsylvania has several universities and colleges known as national leaders in college wrestling. Penn State, coached by Cael Sanderson, has won ten NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships in its history, second most among all universities and colleges after Oklahoma State. Lehigh in Bethlehem has had 28 NCAA Division I individual champions over its history.


title: Pennsylvania

text: In 2008, author Sharon Hernes Silverman called Pennsylvania the snack food capital of the world. It leads all other states in the manufacture of pretzels and potato chips. The Sturgis Pretzel House introduced the pretzel to America, and companies like Anderson Bakery Company, Intercourse Pretzel Factory, and Snyder's of Hanover are leading manufacturers in the Commonwealth. Two of the three companies that define the U.S. potato chip industry are based in Pennsylvania: Utz Quality Foods, which started making chips in Hanover, Pennsylvania, in 1921 and Wise Foods, which started making chips in Berwick also in 1921. The third, Frito-Lay is part of PepsiCo, and is based in Plano, Texas. Other companies such as Herr's Snacks, Martin's Potato Chips, Snyder's of Berlin (not associated with Snyder's of Hanover), Middleswarth Potato Chips (in Middleburg) and Troyer Farms Potato Products are popular chip manufacturers.


title: Pennsylvania

text: The U.S. chocolate industry is centered in Hershey, Pennsylvania, with Mars, Godiva, and Wilbur Chocolate Company nearby, and smaller manufacturers such as Asher's in Souderton, and Gertrude Hawk Chocolates of Dunmore. Other notable companies include Just Born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, makers of Hot Tamales, Mike and Ikes, the Easter favorite marshmallow Peeps, and Boyer Brothers of Altoona, Pennsylvania, which is well known for its Mallo Cups. Auntie Anne's Pretzels began as a market-stand in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, and now has corporate headquarters in Lancaster City. Traditional Pennsylvania Dutch foods include chicken potpie, ham potpie, schnitz un knepp (dried apples, ham, and dumplings), fasnachts (raised doughnuts), scrapple, pretzels, bologna, chow-chow, and Shoofly pie. Martin's Famous Pastry Shoppe, headquartered in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, specializes in potato bread, another traditional Pennsylvania Dutch food. D.G. Yuengling & Son, America's oldest brewery, has been brewing beer in Pottsville since 1829.


title: Pennsylvania

text: Among the regional foods associated with Philadelphia are cheesesteaks, hoagies, soft pretzels, Italian water ice, Irish potato candy, scrapple, Tastykake, and strombolis. In Pittsburgh, tomato ketchup was improved by Henry John Heinz from 1876 to the early 20th century. Famous to a lesser extent than Heinz ketchup is the Pittsburgh's Primanti Brothers Restaurant sandwiches, pierogies, and city chicken. Outside of Scranton, in Old Forge, there are dozens of Italian restaurants specializing in pizza made unique by thick, light crust, and American cheese. Erie also has its share of unique foods, including Greek sauce and sponge candy. Sauerkraut along with pork and mashed potatoes is a traditional meal on New Year's Day in Pennsylvania; its tradition began with the Pennsylvania Dutch who believe the meal leads to good luck in the new year to come.


title: Pennsylvania

text: Pennsylvania has been known as the Keystone State since 1802, based in part upon its central location among the original Thirteen Colonies forming the United States, and also in part because of the number of important American documents signed in the state (such as the Declaration of Independence). It was also a keystone state economically, having both the industry common to the North (making such wares as Conestoga wagons and rifles) and the agriculture common to the South (producing feed, fiber, food, and tobacco).


title: Pennsylvania

text: Another one of Pennsylvania's nicknames is the Quaker State; in colonial times, it was known officially as the Quaker Province, in recognition of Quaker William Penn's First Frame of Government constitution for Pennsylvania that guaranteed liberty of conscience. He knew of the hostility Quakers faced when they opposed religious ritual, taking oaths, violence, war and military service, and what they viewed as ostentatious frippery.


title: Pennsylvania

text: "The Coal State", "The Oil State", "The Chocolate State", and "The Steel State" were adopted when those were the state's greatest industries. "The State of Independence" currently appears on many road signs entering the state.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: Ferdinand "Bongbong" Romualdez Marcos Jr. ( , , ; born September 13, 1957), commonly referred to by the initials PBBM or BBM, is a Filipino politician who is the 17th and current president of the Philippines. He previously served as a senator from 2010 to 2016. He is the second child and only son of 10th president and dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. and former first lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: In 1980, Marcos became Vice Governor of Ilocos Norte, running unopposed with the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan party of his father, who was ruling the Philippines under martial law at the time. He then became Governor of Ilocos Norte in 1983, holding that office until his family was ousted from power by the People Power Revolution and fled into exile in Hawaii in February 1986. After the death of his father in 1989, President Corazon Aquino eventually allowed his family to return to the Philippines to face various charges. Marcos and his mother, Imelda, are currently facing arrest in the United States for defying a court order to pay US$353 million ( in ) in restitution to human rights abuse victims during his father's dictatorship.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: Marcos was elected as Representative of Ilocos Norte's 2nd congressional district from 1992 to 1995. He was elected Governor of Ilocos Norte again in 1998. After nine years, he returned to his previous position as Representative from 2007 to 2010, then became senator under the Nacionalista Party from 2010 to 2016. In 2015, Marcos ran for vice president in the 2016 election. With a difference of 263,473 votes and a 0.64 percent difference in votes, Marcos lost to Camarines Sur representative Leni Robredo. In response, Marcos filed an electoral protest at the Presidential Electoral Tribunal; his petition was later unanimously dismissed after the pilot recount resulted in Robredo widening her lead by 15,093 additional votes.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: In 2021, Marcos announced that he would run for President of the Philippines in the 2022 election, under the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas, which he won by a landslide. He received nearly 59% of the votes, becoming the first to be elected by a majority since the establishment of the Fifth Republic in 1986. He was officially declared president-elect by Congress on May 25, 2022. His win was also the largest since 1981, when his father won 88% of the votes due to a boycott by the opposition who protested the prior election. He is the first Philippine candidate to lose a vice presidential campaign but win the presidency.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: Marcos's presidential campaign received criticism from fact-checkers and disinformation scholars, who found his campaign to be driven by historical negationism aimed at revamping the Marcos brand and smearing his rivals. His campaign has also been accused of whitewashing the human rights abuses and plunder that took place during his father's presidency. "The Washington Post" has noted how the historical distortionism of the Marcoses has been underway since the 2000s, while "The New York Times" cited his convictions of tax fraud, including his refusal to pay his family's estate taxes, and misrepresentation of his education at the University of Oxford.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: Bongbong Marcos was born as Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr. on September 13, 1957 at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Santa Mesa, Manila, Philippines, to Ferdinand Marcos and Imelda Marcos. At that time of his birth, his father Ferdinand, Sr. was the representative for the Second District of Ilocos Norte, eventually becoming a senator just two years later. His godfathers included prominent personalities and future Marcos cronies Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco Jr. and pharmaceuticals magnate Jose Yao Campos.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: Marcos first studied at the Institución Teresiana and La Salle Green Hills in Manila, where he obtained his kindergarten and elementary education, respectively.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: In 1970, Marcos was sent to England where he lived and studied at Worth School, an all-boys Benedictine institution in West Sussex. He was studying there when his father declared martial law throughout the Philippines in 1972.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: He then enrolled at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, to study philosophy, politics and economics (PPE). However, despite his false claims that he graduated with a bachelor of arts in PPE, he did not obtain such a degree. Marcos had passed philosophy, but failed economics, and failed politics twice, thus making him ineligible for a degree. Instead, he received a special diploma in social studies, which was awarded mainly to non-graduates and is currently no longer offered by the university. Marcos still falsely claims that he obtained a degree from the University of Oxford despite Oxford confirming in 2015 that Marcos did not finish his degree.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: Marcos enrolled in the Masters in Business Administration program at the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, United States, which he failed to complete. Marcos asserts that he withdrew from the program for his election as Vice Governor of Ilocos Norte in 1980. The Presidential Commission on Good Government later reported that his tuition, his ( in ) monthly allowance, and the estate he lived in while studying at Wharton, were paid using funds that could be traced partly to the intelligence funds of the Office of the President, and partly to some of the fifteen bank accounts that the Marcoses had secretly opened in the US under assumed names.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: Marcos was thrust into the national limelight as early as when he was three years old, and the scrutiny became even more intense when his father first ran for President of the Philippines in 1965, when he was eight years old.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: During his father's 1965 campaign, Marcos played himself in the Sampaguita Pictures film "Iginuhit ng Tadhana: The Ferdinand E. Marcos Story", a biopic based on the novel "For Every Tear a Victory". The young Marcos was portrayed giving a speech towards the end of the film, in which he says that he would like to be a politician when he grows up. The public relations value of the film is credited for having helped the elder Marcos win the 1965 Philippine elections.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: A young Bongbong Marcos and his sister Imee played a small role in the controversial "Manila incident" of the Beatles in July 1966, just six months after their father assumed the presidency. Bongbong and Imee were among 400 children whom their mother Imelda brought to Malacañang Palace for a reception in which they expected the Beatles to show up. The four band members claimed not to know about the event, and refused to attend. As the event went on without them, the Marcos children were interviewed. Bongbong, referring to the group's long hair, was quoted saying ""I'd like to pounce on the Beatles and cut off their hair! Don't anybody dare me to do anything, because I'll do it, just to see how game the Beatles are."" Imee, meantime, was quoted saying ""There is only one song I like from the Beatles, and it's Run for Your Life.""—a quote which media later associated with the way the Beatles scrambled out of Manila, receiving rough treatment at the Manila International Airport.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: Beatles lead guitarist George Harrison later accused the Marcoses of inciting Filipinos to mob the band as they tried to leave the country for not showing up at the reception, saying in a 1986 interview at NBC's "Today Show" that the Marcoses "tried to kill <nowiki>[them]</nowiki>." Harrison further said that their plane was not allowed to leave Manila until their manager, Brian Epstein, refunded the concert ticket money.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: The "Manila Bulletin" reported in 2015 that Marcos had once invited Beatles drummer Ringo Starr to return to the Philippines "to bring closure" to the incident.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: The incident was brought up in the media again after a 2021 interview between Marcos and Toni Gonzaga, when he was asked about which musicians he idolized, and he casually mentioned that he was friends with Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones and members of the Beatles.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: Marcos was still a minor on the exact year that martial law was declared. Marcos turned 18 in 1975—a year after he graduated from Worth School.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: Marcos's first formal role in a political office came with his election as Vice Governor of Ilocos Norte (1980–1983) at the age of 23. On March 23, 1983, he was installed as the Governor of Ilocos Norte, replacing his aunt, who had resigned from the post due to health reasons. In 1983, he led a group of young Filipino leaders on a 10-day diplomatic mission to China to mark the tenth anniversary of Philippine-Chinese relations. He stayed in office until the People Power Revolution in 1986.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: During Marcos's term, at least two extrajudicial killings took place in Ilocos Norte, as documented by the Martial Law Victims Association of Ilocos Norte (MLVAIN).


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: Marcos was appointed by his father to be chairman of the board of the Philippine Communications Satellite Corporation (PHILCOMSAT) in early 1985. In a prominent example of what Finance Minister Jaime Ongpin later branded "crony capitalism", the Marcos administration had sold its majority shares to Marcos cronies such as Roberto S. Benedicto, Manuel H. Nieto, Jose Yao Campos, and Rolando Gapud in 1982, despite being very profitable because of its role as the sole agent for the Philippines' link to global satellite network Intelsat. President Marcos acquired a 39.9% share in the company through front companies under Campos and Gapud. This allowed President Marcos to appoint his son as the chairman of the Philcomsat board in early 1985, allowing the young Marcos to draw a monthly salary "ranging from to " ( to in ) despite rarely visiting the office and having no duties there. PHILCOMSAT was one of five telecommunications firms sequestered by the Philippine government in 1986.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: After the Marcos family went into exile in 1986, the Presidential Commission on Good Government found that the three Marcos children benefited significantly from what the Supreme Court of the Philippines defined as "ill-gotten wealth" of the Marcos family.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: Aside from the tuition, US$10,000.00 ( in ) monthly allowance, and the estates used by Marcos Jr. and Imee Marcos during their respective studies at Wharton and Princeton, each of the Marcos children was assigned a mansion in the Metro Manila area, as well as in Baguio, the Philippines' designated summer capital. Properties specifically said to have been given to Marcos Jr included the Wigwam House compound on Outlook Drive in Baguio and the Seaside Mansion Compound in Parañaque.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: In addition, by the time their father was ousted from power in 1986, both Marcos Jr. and Imee held key posts in the Marcos administration. Imee was already thirty when she was appointed as the national head of the Kabataang Barangay in the late 1970s, and Marcos Jr was in his twenties when he took up the vice-gubernatorial post for the province of Ilocos Norte in 1980, and then became governor of that province from 1983 until the Marcos family was ousted from Malacañang in 1986.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: During the last days of the 1986 People Power Revolution, Bongbong Marcos, in combat fatigues to project his warlike stance, pushed his father Ferdinand Marcos to give the order to his remaining troops to attack and blow up Camp Crame despite the presence of hundreds of thousands of civilians there. The elder Marcos did not follow his son's urgings.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: Fearful of a scenario in which Marcos's presence in the Philippines would lead to a civil war, the Reagan administration withdrew its support for the Marcos government, and flew Marcos and a party of about 80 individuals – the extended Marcos family and a number of close associates – from the Philippines to Hawaii despite Marcos's objections. Bongbong Marcos and his family were on the flight with his parents.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: Soon after arriving in Hawaii, Marcos Jr. participated in an attempt to withdraw million ( in ) from a secret family bank account with Credit Suisse in Switzerland, an act which eventually led to the Swiss government freezing the Marcoses' bank accounts in late March that year.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: The Marcoses initially stayed at Hickam Air Force Base at the expense of the US Government. A month after arriving in Honolulu, they moved into a pair of residences in Makiki Heights, Honolulu, which were registered to Marcos cronies Antonio Floirendo and Bienvenido and Gliceria Tantoco.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: Ferdinand Marcos eventually died in exile three years later, in 1989, with Marcos Jr. being the only family member present at his father's deathbed.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: After his father's death in 1989, President Corazon Aquino permitted the return of the remaining members of the Marcos family to the Philippines to face various charges. Bongbong Marcos was among the first to return to the Philippines. He arrived in the country in 1991 and soon sought political office, beginning in the family's traditional fiefdom in Ilocos Norte.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: After Marcos returned to the Philippines in 1991, Marcos ran for and was elected representative of the second district of Ilocos Norte to the Philippine House of Representatives (1992–1995). When his mother, Imelda Marcos, ran for president in the same election, he decided against supporting her candidacy, and instead expressed support for his godfather Danding Cojuangco. During his term, Marcos was the author of 29 House bills and co-author of 90 more, which includes those that paved the way for the creation of the Department of Energy and the National Youth Commission. He also allocated most of his Countryside Development Fund (CDF) to organizing the cooperatives of teachers and farmers in his home province. In October 1992, he led a group of ten representatives in attending the first sports summit in the Philippines, held in Baguio. In late 1994, he was made president of the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan party, which is known for its support for the Marcos regime.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: In 1995, Bongbong Marcos pushed a deal to allow the Marcos family to keep a quarter of the estimated US$2 billion to US$10 billion ( to in ) that the Philippine government had still not recovered from them, on the condition that all civil cases be dropped – a deal that was eventually struck down by the Philippines' Supreme Court.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: Having previously served as Ilocos Norte governor from 1983 to 1986, Marcos was again elected as governor of Ilocos Norte in 1998, running against his father's closest friend and ally, Roque Ablan Jr. He served for three consecutive terms ending in 2007.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: In 2007, Marcos ran unopposed for the congressional seat previously held by his older sister Imee. He was then appointed as deputy minority leader of the House of Representatives. During this term, Marcos supported the passage of the Philippine Archipelagic Baselines Law, or Republic Act No. 9522. He also wrote his own version of the law, but the bill only remained in the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. He also promoted the Republic Act No. 9502 (Universally Accessible Cheaper and Quality Medicines Act) which was enacted on 2009.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: Marcos made a second attempt for the Senate in 2010. On November 20, 2009, the KBL forged an alliance with the Nacionalista Party (NP) between Marcos and NP chair Senator Manny Villar at the Laurel House in Mandaluyong. Marcos became a guest senatorial candidate of the NP through this alliance. Marcos was later removed as a member by the KBL National Executive Committee on November 23, 2009. As such, the NP broke its alliance with the KBL due to internal conflicts within the party, however Marcos remained part of the NP senatorial lineup. He was proclaimed as one of the winning senatorial candidates of the 2010 senate elections. He took office on June 30, 2010.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: In the 15th Congress (2010–2013), Marcos authored 34 Senate bills. He also co-authored 17 bills of which seven were enacted into law – most notably the Anti-Drunk and Drugged Driving Act whose principal author was Senator Vicente Sotto III; the Cybercrime Prevention Act whose principal author was Senator Edgardo Angara; and the Expanded Anti-Trafficking in Persons and the National Health Insurance Acts, both of which were principally authored by Senator Loren Legarda.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: In the 16th Congress (2013–2016), Marcos filed 52 bills, of which 28 were refiled from the 15th Congress. One of them was enacted into law: Senate Bill 1186, which sought the postponement of the 2013 Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections, was enacted as Republic Act 10632 on October 3, 2013.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: Marcos also co-authored 4 Senate bills in the 16th Congress. One of them, Senate Bill 712 which was principally authored by Ralph Recto, was enacted as Republic Act 10645, the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: He was the chair of the Senate committees on local government and public works. He also chaired the oversight committee on the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Organic Act, the congressional oversight panel on the Special Purpose Vehicle Act, and a select oversight committee on barangay affairs.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: In 2014, Bongbong Marcos was implicated by Janet Lim Napoles and Benhur Luy in the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) Pork Barrel scam through agent Catherine Mae "Maya" Santos. He allegedly channeled million through 4 fake NGOs linked with Napoles. Marcos claimed that the large amounts of money was released by the budget department without his knowledge and that his signatures were forged. In connection to the PDAF scam, Marcos was also sued for plunder by (), an alliance of youth organizations. The group cited Luy's digital files, which showed bogus NGOs with shady or non-existent offices.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: In 2016, Marcos was also sued for "plunder" for funneling million of his PDAF via 9 special allotment release orders (SARO) to the following bogus foundations from October 2011 to January 2013, according to Luy's digital files:


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: On October 5, 2015, Marcos announced via his website that he would run for vice president of the Philippines in the 2016 general election, stating "I have decided to run for vice president in the May 2016 elections." Marcos ran as an independent candidate. Prior to his announcement, he had declined an invitation by presidential candidate, Vice President Jejomar Binay, to become his running mate. On October 15, 2015, presidential candidate Miriam Defensor Santiago confirmed that Marcos would serve as her running mate.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: Marcos placed second in the tightly contested vice presidential race losing to Camarines Sur Representative Leni Robredo, who won by a margin of 263,473 votes, one of the closest since Fernando Lopez's victory in the 1965 vice presidential election.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: Marcos challenged the results of the election, lodging an electoral protest against Leni Robredo on June 29, 2016, the day before Robredo's oathtaking. President Rodrigo Duterte has stated several times that he would resign if Marcos would be his successor instead of Vice President Leni Robredo.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: A recount began in April 2018, covering polling precincts in Iloilo and Camarines Sur, which were areas handpicked by Marcos's camp. In October 2019, the tribunal found that Robredo's lead grew by around 15,000 votes – a total of 278,566 votes from Robredo's original lead of 263,473 votes – after a recount of ballots from the 5,415 clustered precincts in Marcos's identified pilot provinces. On February 16, 2021, the PET unanimously dismissed Bongbong Marcos's electoral protest against Leni Robredo.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: Marcos officially launched his campaign for president of the Philippines on October 5, 2021, through a video post on Facebook and YouTube. An interview with his wife Liza Marcos revealed that he decided to run for president while watching the film "Ant-Man", though Marcos admitted that he could not recall this moment. He ran under the banner of the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas party, assuming chairmanship of the party on the same day, while also being endorsed by his former party, the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan. Marcos filed his certificate of candidacy before the Commission on Elections the following day. On November 16, Marcos announced his running mate to be Sara Duterte, daughter of President Rodrigo Duterte and mayor of Davao City. Under the campaign theme of unity, Marcos and Duterte's pairing was given the name "UniTeam".


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: Seven petitions were filed against Marcos's presidential bid. Three petitions aimed to cancel Marcos's certificate of candidacy (COC), one petition aimed to declare Marcos a nuisance candidate, and three petitions aim to disqualify him. Most petitions are based on Marcos's 1995 conviction for failing to file tax returns. Three disqualification petitions were consolidated and raffled to the commission's first division, while three other petitions were handed to the second division. The final petition was also handed to the first division. Marcos dismissed the petitions as nuisance petitions with no legal basis and propaganda against him.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: Marcos regularly maintained a wide lead in presidential surveys throughout the months leading up to the May 2022 election; he was the first presidential candidate in the country to attain poll ratings of over 50% from surveys conducted by Pulse Asia since it began polling in 1999. His refrainment from attending all but one of the presidential debates during the campaign season was widely criticized.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: In a joint session of the 18th Congress of the Philippines, overseen by Senate President Tito Sotto and House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco and stated by Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri and Majority Floor Leader Martin Romualdez, Marcos was proclaimed the president-elect of the Philippines on May 25, 2022, alongside his running-mate, Vice-President-elect Sara Duterte. Marcos received 31,629,783 votes, or 58.77% of the total votes cast, about 16.5 million votes ahead of his closest rival, Vice President Leni Robredo, who received over 15 million votes. He became the first presidential candidate to be elected by a majority since the establishment of the Fifth Republic in 1986. According to analysts, Marcos, together with Sara Duterte, "inherited" Rodrigo Duterte's popularity when they both won landslides in the election. Historians noted the significance of his victory as a "full circle" of the Philippines from the People Power Revolution, which deposed his father from the presidency, thus marking the Marcos family's return to national power after 36 years. His majority was the largest since 1981 (surpassing his father's 18,309,360 votes); as the opposition boycotted that election, it is the largest majority since 1969 for a competitive election, and his 31-percentage point margin over his nearest opponent was the greatest since Ramon Magsaysay scored a 38-point margin over incumbent President Elpidio Quirino in 1953. His vote count was not only the largest ever recorded in a presidential election, but close to the sum total of the two previous records combined.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: On June 20, 2022, Marcos announced that he will serve as the Secretary of Agriculture in concurrent capacity.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: On June 30, 2022, Marcos Jr. took the oath of office as the 17th President of the Philippines at the National Museum of the Philippines and was administered the oath by Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: On June 27, 1990, a special tax audit team of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) investigated the tax liabilities and obligations of the late Ferdinand Marcos Sr, who died on September 29, 1989. The investigation disclosed in a 1991 memorandum that the Marcos family had failed to file estate tax returns and several income tax returns covering the years of 1982 to 1986 in violation of the National Internal Revenue Code.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: The BIR also issued a deficiency estate tax assessment against the estate of the late Ferdinand Marcos Sr. in 1991 for unpaid estate taxes from 1982 to 1985, and 1985 to 1986, totaling ( in 2022). Formal assessment notices were served to Bongbong Marcos at his office at the Batasang Pambansa Complex on October 20, 1992, who was then the representative of the 2nd District of Ilocos Norte. Several notices of levy were also issued by the BIR February 22, 1993, to May 26, 1993, to satisfy the deficiency of estate tax returns, to no avail.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: On March 12, 1993, lawyer Loreto Ata, representing Bongbong Marcos, called the attention of the BIR to notify them of any action taken by the BIR against his client. Bongbong Marcos then filed an instant petition on June 25, 1993, for "certiorari" and prohibition to contest the estate tax deficiency assessment.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: On July 27, 1995, Quezon City Regional Trial Court Judge Benedicto Ulep convicted Marcos to seven years in jail and a fine of US$2,812 ( in ) plus back taxes for tax evasion in his failure to file an income tax return from the period of 1982 to 1985 while sitting as the vice governor of Ilocos Norte (1980–1983) and as governor of Ilocos Norte (1983–1986). Marcos subsequently appealed the decision to the Court of Appeals over his conviction. However, in 1994, the Court of Appeals ruled that the estate tax deficiency assessment had become "final and unappealable", allowing it to be enforced.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: On October 31, 1997, the Court of Appeals affirmed its earlier decision with Marcos being convicted for the failure of the filing of an income tax return under Section 45 of the National Internal Revenue Code of 1977 while being acquitted of tax evasion under the charge of violating Section 50 of the same statute. In spite of the removal of the penalty of imprisonment, Marcos was ordered the payment of back income taxes to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) with interest and the issuance of corresponding fines of per count of non-filing of income tax returns from 1982 to 1984 and for 1985, plus the accrued interest. Marcos later filed a petition for certiorari to the Supreme Court of the Philippines over the modified conviction imposed by the Court of Appeals but subsequently withdrew his petition on August 8, 2001, thereby declaring the ruling as final and executory.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: In 2021, the Quezon City Regional Trial Court certified that there were no records on file of Marcos settling the corresponding tax dues and fines. However, according to Marcos's campaign team, documents issued by the Supreme Court, the BIR, and a receipt issued by the Land Bank of the Philippines state that the tax dues were paid, while elections commissioner Rowena Guanzon noted that the documents Marcos submitted to the Commission on Elections were not receipts of taxes paid to the BIR but rather receipts from the Land Bank for lease rentals. Nevertheless, the Commission on Elections ruled against the consolidated disqualification cases against Marcos and stated that “Further, to prove the absence of any ill-intention and bad faith on his part,” Marcos submitted a Bureau of Internal Revenue certification and an official receipt from the Landbank, showing his compliance with the CA decision directing him to pay deficiency income taxes amounting to a little over , including fines and surcharges.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: The estate tax deficiency assessment issued by the BIR has remained uncollected since the Supreme Court ruling on October 12, 1991. Since the ruling of the Supreme Court in 1997 which had junked the petition of Marcos to contest the estate tax deficiency assessment, under the Ramos, Arroyo, Aquino, and Duterte administrations, the BIR has issued renewed written demands on the Marcos family to pay the estate tax liabilities, which has remained unpaid. As a result, the estate tax deficiency assessment, with penalties, is estimated to have ballooned to ( billion) as of 2021.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: The unpaid estate tax return was used as grounds in one petition to cancel Marcos's certificate of candidacy for president in the 2022 elections. On March 1, 2022, presidential candidate and Manila mayor Isko Moreno said that he would implement the Supreme Court ruling ordering the Marcos family to pay their estate tax debts if elected, vowing to use the proceeds as relief aid ("ayuda") for victims of the COVID-19 pandemic. On March 28, 2022, Senator Aquilino Pimentel III filed Senate Resolution No. 998, stating an urgent and pressing need for the Senate to look into why the estate tax has remained uncollected for almost 25 years, which the amount has already been ruled to be due and demandable against the heirs of his father.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: On June 19, 2007, Marcos Jr. filed a motion to intervene in, OCLP v. PCGG, Civil Case Number 0093 at the Sandiganbayan, the Philippines' anti-graft court. The case had been filed by Ortigas & Company, Ltd. Partnership (OCLP) against the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) over the 18-hectare former Payanig sa Pasig property bordering Ortigas Avenue, Julia Vargas Avenue, and Meralco Avenue in Ortigas Center, Pasig City, which had been the site of the 'Payanig sa Pasig' theme park, but is now the location of various businesses, most notably the Metrowalk shopping and recreation complex.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: The PCGG considers the property the "crown jewel" among the properties sequestered from the Marcoses' ill-gotten wealth, estimating its minimum value to be about billion in March 2015. The property had been surrendered to the PCGG in 1986, as part of the settlement deal of Marcos crony Jose Yao Campos, who was holding the property under various companies on Marcos Sr.'s behalf. Ortigas & Company countered that Marcos Sr. had coerced them to sell the property to him in 1968. Marcos Jr.'s motion claimed that his father had bought the property legally, but the Sandiganbayan dismissed his motion on October 18, 2008, saying it had already dismissed a similar motion filed years earlier by his mother Imelda.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: In 2011, the Hawaii District Court ruled Bongbong Marcos and his mother Imelda Marcos to be in contempt, fining them million ( in ) fine for not respecting an injunction from a 1992 judgement in a Human Rights Victims case, which commanded them not to dissipate the assets of Ferdinand Marcos's estate. The ruling was upheld by the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on October 24, 2012, and is believed to be "the largest contempt award ever affirmed by an appellate court." While the 1992 case was against Ferdinand Marcos, the 2011 judgment was against Imelda and Bongbong personally. The judgement also effectively barred Imelda and Bongbong from entering any US territory. However, on June 9, 2022, United States Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman clarified in a roundtable discussion with local reporters during a state visit, that as a head of state, Marcos enjoys diplomatic immunity in all circumstances, stating that he is welcome to visit the United States under his official role.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: Marcos has described his political views as "conservative" and "Machiavellian". He has been described in media reports as a populist.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: In foreign policy, although he has sought closer ties with China, he has been described as more pro-American than his predecessor, Duterte.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: As with other Marcos family members who have stayed in the public eye since their return to the Philippines, Marcos has received significant criticism for instances of historical denialism, and his trivialization of the human rights violations and economic plunder that took place during the Marcos administration, and of the role he played in the administration. Specific criticisms have been leveled at Marcos for being unapologetic for human rights violations and ill-gotten wealth during his father's administration. Of the human rights victims, Marcos Jr. said of them in 1999: "They don't want an apology, they want money." He then proceeded to state that his family would apologize only if they had done something wrong.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: When victims of human rights abuses during his father's administration commemorated the 40th year of the proclamation of martial law in 2012, Marcos Jr. dismissed their calls for an apology for the atrocities as "self-serving statements by politicians, self-aggrandizement narratives, pompous declarations, and political posturing and propaganda"."" In the "Sydney Morning Herald" later that year, Bongbong cited the various court decisions against the Marcos family as a reason not to apologize for Martial Law abuses, saying "we have a judgment against us in the billions. What more would people want?"


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: During his 2016 vice presidential campaign, Marcos responded to then-President Noynoy Aquino's criticism of the Marcos regime and call to oppose his election run. He dismissed the events, saying Filipinos should "leave history to the professors." This prompted over 500 faculty, staff and history professors from the Ateneo de Manila University to immediately issue a statement condemning his dismissive retort as part of "an ongoing willful distortion of our history," and a "shameless refusal to acknowledge the crimes of the Martial Law regime." More than 1,400 Catholic schools, through the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP), later joined the call of the Ateneo faculty "against the attempt of [Marcos] to canonize the harrowing horrors of martial rule." This was also followed by the University of the Philippines Diliman's Department of History, which released a statement of its own, decrying what they called a "dangerous" effort for Marcos to create "myth and deception."


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: On September 20, 2018, Marcos Jr. released a YouTube video showing a tête-à-tête between him and former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, who had been his father's defense minister before playing a key role in his ouster during the 1986 EDSA revolution. The video made a number of claims, which were quickly refuted and denounced by martial law victims, including former Senate President Aquilino Pimentel Jr., former Social Welfare Secretary Judy Taguiwalo, former Commission on Human Rights chair Etta Rosales, and writer Boni Ilagan, among others. Enrile later backpedaled from some of his claims, attributing them to "unlucid intervals."


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: According to research by Vera Files, Marcos benefited the most from fake news from the Philippines in 2017, along with President Rodrigo Duterte. Most viral news were driven by shares on networks of Facebook pages. Also, most Philippine audience Facebook pages and groups spreading online disinformation bore "Duterte", "Marcos" or "News" in their names and are pro-Duterte.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: In July 2020, Brittany Kaiser alleged in an interview that Marcos had approached the controversial firm Cambridge Analytica in order to "rebrand" the Marcos family image on social media. Marcos's spokesperson Vic Rodriguez denied these allegations and stated that Marcos is considering filing libel charges against Rappler, which published Kaiser's interview.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: Between the late 70s and early 80s, an urban legend became popular claiming that Marcos Jr. was stabbed and died during a scuffle while studying abroad. The Marcos family allegedly looked for Bongbong’s look-alike to replace him. This was later debunked by Marcos in one of his vlogs. The origins of this urban legend remain unknown.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: In 1990, during a coverage of Imelda Marcos's trial in New York, Inquirer journalist Kristina Luz interviewed then-33-year-old exiled Bongbong Marcos and asked where the Marcos wealth come from. Marcos responded "only I know where the gold is and how to get it". This was corroborated in a 1992 report by the Associated Press that quoted Imelda Marcos saying that her husband’s wealth came "from the Japanese and other gold he found after World War II, and not from the Philippine coffers." In 2007, Marcos informed the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan that his father's wealth came from trading "precious metals more specifically gold from the years 1946 to 1954" when he tried to win back the Ortigas Payanig property in Pasig from the national government.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: The myth surrounding the gold allegedly owned by the Marcos family has been the subject of various misinformation, as in 2011, a Facebook post claimed that a certain "Tallano clan" had paid Ferdinand Marcos Sr. in gold for his legal services. Several years later, supporters of the Marcos family in a Facebook page called "Marcos Cyber Warriors" also claimed that Marcos Sr.’s wealth came from his former law client, the "Maharlikan Tallano family".


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: This has resulted in a long-running belief that should Bongbong Marcos win as president, he will give Filipinos a share of this gold. However during his Philippine presidential election campaign in the 2022 elections, when asked over One News to verify the mythical "Tallano gold" or the long-believed tale that they got a share of the Japanese Yamashita gold, Marcos denied knowledge of it, even joking that "people should let him know if they see any of that gold". The urban myth had allegedly been suggested or carried by various social media pages being run by Marcos supporters in order to engage more people to support his presidential bid.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: Marcos is married to lawyer Louise "Liza" Cacho Araneta, a member of the prominent Araneta family. Marcos and Araneta were married in Fiesole, Italy, on April 17, 1993. They have three sons: Ferdinand Alexander III "Sandro" (born 1994), Joseph Simon (born 1995) and William Vincent "Vinny" (born 1997). Although he is Ilocano by ethnic ancestry, he was brought up in a Manileño household and does not speak the Ilocano language. The Marcos family maintains a residence in Forbes Park, Makati.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: Aside from his common nickname "Bongbong", Marcos is known by his peers as "Bonggets". Marcos is an avid listener of rock and roll, rhythm and blues, and jazz music. He once held a record collection in Malacañang Palace that he described as "the best record collection in the Philippines" but left it when his family was exiled from the country in 1986. He is a fan of the Beatles, citing "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" as his favorite album of theirs, and often collects the band's memorabilia. Marcos can also play the saxophone.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: Marcos exercises regularly and claims to abstain from consuming confections and soft drinks. Marcos is also an avid reader, a cinephile, and a gun enthusiast, where he holds a competition under his name. He follows Formula One racing as a supporter of Scuderia Ferrari; during his presidency, he attended the 2022 Singapore Grand Prix with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and other foreign dignitaries.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: On March 31, 2020, Marcos's spokesperson confirmed that Marcos had tested positive for COVID-19. Prior to getting tested, Marcos was reportedly experiencing chest pains after coming home from a trip to Spain. He has since recovered from the disease after testing negative on a RT-PCR test on May 5, 2020, a month after testing positive for COVID-19. On July 8, 2022, Marcos's press secretary confirmed that Marcos had tested positive again for COVID-19 after experiencing slight fever.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: On November 18, 2021, President Rodrigo Duterte claimed in a televised speech that a certain candidate for the 2022 Philippine presidential election is allegedly using cocaine, hinting at the candidate using male pronouns on several instances. Furthermore, Duterte alleged that the candidate eluded law enforcement authorities by doing drugs on a private yacht and a plane. Although he did not name the candidate, it was alluded that Duterte was referring to Marcos after he continued on his speech that the male candidate is a "weak leader" and has been "capitalizing on his father's accomplishments". Prior to that, Duterte previously named Marcos a "weak leader who had done nothing" and a "spoiled child for being an only son".


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: Days after Duterte's allegation, Marcos took a cocaine drug test through a urine sample at St. Luke's Medical Center and submitted the negative result to law enforcement authorities with a follow up online memo by the medical institution confirming the legitimacy of the test.


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: Marcos responded that he did not feel that he was the one alluded to by President Duterte. According to health care provider American Addiction Centers, after the last use, cocaine or its metabolites can show up on a blood or saliva test for up to two days, a urine test for up to three days, and a hair test for months to years. In an interview with CNN Philippines in April 2022, Marcos responded to Duterte's remarks on him being a "spoiled" and "weak leader", saying that the president was "playing politics" and was "always making sure everybody's thinking hard about what they're doing".


title: Bongbong Marcos

text: In an interview with ANC in May 2022, former senator Nikki Coseteng, who claimed to personally know Marcos, alleged that Marcos was a "lazy individual" who frequented discos and got high on illegal substances along with his socialite friends during his youth. Marcos has neither denied nor confirmed Coseteng's allegations.


title: Hunter Biden

text: Robert Hunter Biden (born February 4, 1970) is an American attorney who is the second son of U.S. President Joe Biden and his first wife Neilia Hunter Biden. He is also a hedge fund, venture capital, and private-equity fund investor who formerly worked as a lobbyist, banker, public administration official, and registered lobbyist-firm attorney.


title: Hunter Biden

text: Biden was discharged from the U.S. Navy Reserve shortly after his commissioning due to a failed drug test. Biden served on the board of Burisma Holdings, one of the largest private natural gas producers in Ukraine, from 2014 until his term expired in April 2019. Since the early months of 2019, he and his father Joe Biden have been the subjects of unsupported claims of corrupt activities in a Biden–Ukraine conspiracy theory pushed by then–U.S. President Donald Trump and his allies, concerning Hunter Biden's business dealings in Ukraine and Joe Biden's anti-corruption efforts there. Biden was a founding board member of BHR Partners, a Chinese investment company. In 2020, he began presenting artwork as a painter.


title: Hunter Biden

text: In October 2020, the "New York Post" published an article about a laptop computer that previously belonged to Hunter Biden. The laptop contained around 129,000 emails and other materials, but the "Post" provided no evidence as to the chain of custody or authenticity of the device. Other media outlets opted not to publish the story due to questions about that lack of provenance. In March 2022, "The New York Times" and "The Washington Post" reported that some of the emails found on the device were authentic. Despite extensive speculation and scrutiny of the laptop contents by multiple parties, as of September 2022 no clear evidence of criminal activity by Biden has surfaced. Since late 2018, his tax affairs have been under federal criminal investigation.


title: Hunter Biden

text: Robert Hunter Biden was born on February 4, 1970, in Wilmington, Delaware. He is the second son of Neilia Biden (née Hunter) and Joe Biden. Hunter Biden's mother and younger sister Naomi were killed in an automobile crash on December 18, 1972. Biden and his older brother Beau were also seriously injured but survived. Beau suffered multiple broken bones while Hunter sustained a fractured skull and severe traumatic brain injuries. Both spent several months in the hospital, where their father was sworn into the U.S. Senate in January 1973. Hunter and Beau later encouraged their father to marry again, and Jill Jacobs became their stepmother in 1977. Biden's half-sister Ashley was born in 1981.


title: Hunter Biden

text: Like his father and brother, Biden attended Catholic high school Archmere Academy in Claymont, Delaware. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Georgetown University in 1992. During the year after he graduated from college, he served as a Jesuit volunteer at a church in Portland, Oregon, and met Kathleen Buhle, whom he married in 1993. After attending Georgetown University Law Center for one year, he transferred to Yale Law School and graduated in 1996.


title: Hunter Biden

text: After graduating from law school in 1996, Biden accepted a consultant position at the bank holding company MBNA, whose employees donated more than $200,000 into Joe Biden's senate campaigns. MBNA's hiring of Biden was controversial because his father had pushed for credit card legislation which was beneficial to the credit card industry and was supported by MBNA during Biden's time at the bank. The legislation made it more difficult to get bankruptcy protection. This led to Byron York of National Review referring to Joe Biden, years later, as "the senator from MBNA" referencing the close relationship between the two. By 1998, Hunter Biden had risen to the rank of executive vice president at MBNA. Biden departed from MBNA in 2001. He then left to serve at the United States Department of Commerce, focusing on ecommerce policy for President Bill Clinton's administration. Biden then became a lobbyist, co-founding the firm of Oldaker, Biden & Belair. According to Adam Entous of "The New Yorker", Biden and his father established a relationship in which "Biden wouldn't ask Hunter about his lobbying clients, and Hunter wouldn't tell his father about them."


title: Hunter Biden

text: Hunter Biden was appointed to a five-year term on the board of directors of Amtrak by President George W. Bush in 2006. Biden was the board's vice chairman from July 2006 until 2009; he was replaced as Vice Chairman in January and resigned from the board in February, shortly after his father became vice president. Biden said during his father's vice-presidential campaign that it was time for his lobbying activities to end.


title: Hunter Biden

text: In 2006, Biden and his uncle James Biden purchased international hedge fund Paradigm Global Advisors; Hunter was interim CEO of the fund for five years, until 2011. In September 2008, Biden launched a consultancy company named Seneca Global Advisors that offered to help companies expand into foreign markets. Biden was a partner in investment vehicles that included the name "Seneca" to denote his participation. In 2009, he, Devon Archer, and Christopher Heinz founded the investment and advisory firm Rosemont Seneca Partners. He also co-founded venture capital firm Eudora Global. He held the position of counsel in the law firm Boies Schiller Flexner LLP in 2014. Biden was on the board of directors of World Food Program USA, a 501(c)(3) charity based in Washington, D.C. that supports the work of the UN World Food Programme from 2011 to 2017; he served as board chairman from 2011 to 2015.


title: Hunter Biden

text: A detailed analysis of Hunter Biden's hard drive by NBC News showed that Biden and his firm were paid $11 million from 2013 to 2018.


title: Hunter Biden

text: Several bank accounts linked to Hunter Biden have received $3.8 million in payments from CEFC China Energy, an oil and gas company with links to the Chinese Communist Party.


title: Hunter Biden

text: From 2013 to 2020, Biden served as a member of the board of the China-based private equity fund BHR Partners, of which he acquired a 10% stake in 2017 at a discount. The founders of BHR Partners included Biden's Rosemont Seneca Partners investment firm (20% equity), along with US-based Thornton Group LLC (10% equity) and two asset managers registered in China. The Chinese-registered asset managers are the Bank of China (via BOC International Holdings-backed Bohai Industrial Investment Fund Management) and Deutsche Bank-backed Harvest Fund Management.


title: Hunter Biden

text: In September 2019, while Trump was accusing Hunter Biden of malfeasance in Ukraine, he also falsely claimed that Biden "walk[ed] out of China with $1.5 billion in a fund" and earned "millions" of dollars from the BHR deal. Trump publicly called upon China to investigate Hunter Biden's business activities there while his father was vice president. Hunter Biden announced on October 13, 2019, his resignation from the board of directors for BHR Partners, effective at the end of the month, citing "the barrage of false charges" by then-U.S. President Trump. According to his lawyer, Biden had "not received any compensation for being on BHR's board of directors" nor had he received any return on his equity share in BHR. Biden's lawyer George Mesires told "The Washington Post" that BHR Partners had been "capitalized from various sources with a total of 30 million RMB [Chinese Renminbi], or about $4.2 million, not $1.5 billion". Chinese records showed Biden was no longer on BHR's board by April 2020. Biden's attorney said in November 2021 that his client no longer held any direct or indirect interest in BHR.


title: Hunter Biden

text: The BHR Partners fund invests Chinese venture capital into tech startups like an early-stage investment in Chinese car hailing app DiDi and cross-border acquisitions in automotive and mining, such as the purchase of a stake in Democratic Republic of Congo copper and cobalt producer Tenke Fungurume Mining. "The New York Times" reported that BHR Partners helped finance a coal-mining company in Australia that was controlled by a Chinese state-owned enterprise, assisted a subsidiary of a Chinese defense company in acquiring an auto parts manufacturer in Michigan, and helped facilitate a Chinese firm's purchase of one of the world's richest cobalt mines in Democratic Republic of Congo. A former BHR board member told the "Times" that Biden and the other American BHR founders were not involved in the mine deal.


title: Hunter Biden

text: Biden joined the board of Burisma Holdings owned by Ukrainian oligarch and former politician Mykola Zlochevsky, who was facing a money laundering investigation just after the Ukrainian revolution, in April 2014. Biden was hired to help Burisma with corporate governance best practices, while still an attorney with Boies Schiller Flexner, and a consulting firm in which Biden is a partner was also retained by Burisma. Christopher Heinz, John Kerry's stepson, opposed his partners Devon Archer and Hunter Biden joining the board in 2014 due to the reputational risk. Biden served on the board of Burisma until his term expired in April 2019, receiving compensation of up to $50,000 per month in some months. Because Joe Biden played a major role in U.S. policy towards Ukraine, some Ukrainian anti-corruption advocates and Obama administration officials expressed concern that Hunter Biden having joined the board could create the appearance of a conflict of interest and undermine Joe Biden's anti-corruption work in Ukraine. While serving as vice president, Joe Biden joined other Western leaders in encouraging the government of Ukraine to fire the country's top prosecutor Viktor Shokin, who was widely criticized for blocking corruption investigations. The Ukrainian parliament voted to remove Shokin in March 2016.


title: Hunter Biden

text: Former President Donald Trump and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani claimed in 2019, without evidence, that Joe Biden had sought the dismissal of Shokin in order to protect his son and Burisma Holdings. Actually, it was the official policy of the United States and the European Union to seek Shokin's removal. There has also been no evidence produced of wrongdoing by Hunter Biden in Ukraine. The Ukrainian anti-corruption investigation agency stated in September 2019 that its current investigation of Burisma was restricted solely to investigating the period from 2010 to 2012, before Hunter Biden joined Burisma in 2014. Shokin, in May 2019, claimed that he was fired because he had been actively investigating Burisma, but U.S. and Ukrainian officials have stated that the investigation into Burisma was dormant at the time of Shokin's dismissal. Ukrainian and United States State Department sources note that Shokin was fired for failing to address corruption, including within his office.


title: Hunter Biden

text: In July 2019, Trump ordered the freezing of $391 million in military aid shortly before a telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in which Trump asked Zelenskyy to initiate an investigation of the Bidens. Trump falsely told Zelenskyy that "[Joe] Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution" of his son; Joe Biden did not stop any prosecution, did not brag about doing so, and there is no evidence his son was ever under investigation. The United States House of Representatives initiated a formal impeachment inquiry on September 24, 2019, against Trump on the grounds that he may have sought to use U.S. foreign aid and the Ukrainian government to damage Joe Biden's 2020 presidential campaign. Ukrainian prosecutor general Yuriy Lutsenko said in May 2019 that Hunter Biden had not violated Ukrainian law. After Lutsenko was replaced by Ruslan Riaboshapka as prosecutor general, Lutsenko and Riaboshapka said in September and October 2019 respectively that they had seen no evidence of wrongdoing by Hunter Biden.


title: Hunter Biden

text: During 2019 and into 2020, Republican senators Ron Johnson and Chuck Grassley investigated Hunter Biden's involvement with Burisma, as well as allegations that Democrats colluded with the Ukrainian government to interfere in the 2016 election. The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee Republican senator Richard Burr privately expressed concerns to the senators that their inquiries could assist efforts by Russian intelligence to spread disinformation to disrupt American domestic affairs. American intelligence officials briefed senators in late 2019 about Russian efforts to frame Ukraine for 2016 election interference. Johnson said he would release findings in spring 2020, as Democrats would be selecting their 2020 presidential nominee, but instead ramped up the investigation at Trump's urging in May 2020, after it became clear that Joe Biden would be the nominee. Trump tweeted a press report about the investigations, later stating that he would make allegations of corruption by the Bidens a central theme of his re-election campaign. Johnson decided in March 2020 against issuing a subpoena for former Ukrainian official Andrii Telizhenko, a Giuliani associate who had made appearances on the pro-Trump cable channel One America News, after the FBI briefed him about concerns Telizhenko could be spreading Russian disinformation. The State Department revoked Telizhenko's visa in October 2020, and CNN reported the American government was considering sanctioning him as a Russian agent. CNN reported that Vladislav Davidzon, the editor of Ukrainian magazine "The Odessa Review", told CNN that in 2018 Telizhenko offered him money to lobby Republican senators in support of pro-Russian television stations in Ukraine. When Johnson released the final report on the investigation, it contained no evidence that Joe Biden had pushed for Shokin's removal in order to benefit Hunter or Burisma.


title: Hunter Biden

text: In June 2020, former Ukrainian prosecutor general Ruslan Riaboshapka stated that an audit of thousands of old case files he had ordered in October 2019 had found no wrongdoing by Hunter Biden. Riaboshapka was described by Zelenskyy as "100 percent my person" during the July 2019 call in which Trump asked him to investigate Biden.


title: Hunter Biden

text: Ukrainian lawmaker Andrii Derkach, an associate of Rudy Giuliani with links to Russian intelligence, released in May 2020 alleged snippets of recordings of Joe Biden speaking with Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko during the years Hunter Biden worked for Burisma. The recordings, which were not verified as authentic and appeared heavily edited, depicted Biden linking loan guarantees for Ukraine to the ouster of the country's prosecutor general. The recordings did not provide evidence to support the ongoing conspiracy theory that Biden wanted the prosecutor fired to protect his son. Poroshenko denied in June 2020 that Joe Biden ever approached him about Burisma. The United States Department of the Treasury sanctioned Derkach in September 2020, stating he "has been an active Russian agent for over a decade, maintaining close connections with the Russian Intelligence Services". The Treasury Department added Derkach "waged a covert influence campaign centered on cultivating false and unsubstantiated narratives concerning U.S. officials in the upcoming 2020 Presidential Election" including by the release of "edited audio tapes and other unsupported information with the intent to discredit U.S. officials". Close associates of Derkach were also sanctioned by the Treasury Department in January 2021. United States intelligence community analysis released in March 2021 found that Derkach was among proxies of Russian intelligence who promoted and laundered misleading or unsubstantiated narratives about Biden "to US media organizations, US officials, and prominent US individuals, including some close to former President Trump and his administration".


title: Hunter Biden

text: Two Republicans on a Senate investigation committee in 2020 claimed that Russian businessperson Yelena Baturina, the wife of former Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov, wire-transferred $3.5 million in 2014 to Rosemont Seneca Thornton, of which Biden had previously been a partner. "The Washington Post" reported in April 2022 that the partners of Rosemont Seneca Thornton had agreed to dissolve the organization before the 2014 wire transfer, though it continued to be operated by Devin Archer to facilitate real estate transactions for eastern and central Asia investors, while Biden was uninvolved. Archer received the $3.5 million wire from Baturina to purchase property in Brooklyn, New York. The Senate report cited unspecified confidential documents and gave no evidence that Biden personally accepted the funds. Biden's attorney denied the report, saying Biden had no financial relationship with the woman and no stake in the partnership that received the money, nor did he co-found the partnership. However, Trump's White House spokeswoman Alyssa Farah repeated the claim, and in a press conference Trump repeatedly asserted that Biden received millions of dollars from the former mayor's wife.


title: Hunter Biden

text: In December 2020, Biden made a public announcement via his attorney that his tax affairs are under federal criminal investigation. "The New York Times" and CNN, citing sources familiar with the investigation, described the investigation as having started in late 2018 and being related to potential violations of tax and money laundering laws and his business dealings in foreign countries, principally China. "The Wall Street Journal" reported that Biden had provided legal and consulting services that generated foreign-earned income, citing a Senate Republicans' report that says millions of dollars in wire transfers from entities linked to Chinese energy tycoon Ye Jianming were paying for such services. "The New York Times" reported that according to people familiar with the inquiry, FBI investigators had been unable to establish sufficient evidence for a prosecution of potential money laundering crimes, including after the seizure of a laptop purportedly belonging to Biden, and so the investigation progressed onto tax issues. The "Times" reported in May 2022 that Hollywood attorney and writer Kevin Morris, who has become an influential adviser/confidant and now financier to Biden, lent him more than $2 million to pay back taxes and support his family.


title: Hunter Biden

text: "The New York Times" reported in March 2022 that since 2018 Biden and possibly others had been under investigation by federal prosecutors in Delaware, with a grand jury convened to subpoena and hear evidence. The investigation examined payments and gifts Biden or his associates had received from foreign interests and whether Biden had violated the law by not registering as a lobbyist under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). The "Times" reported it had acquired emails that were authenticated by people familiar with them and the investigation that appeared to come from a laptop belonging to Biden. One April 2014 email, written by Biden to his business partner as their work with Burisma was about to begin, noted that his father, then the vice president who would soon visit Kyiv, should "be characterized as part of our advice and thinking—but what he will say and do is out of our hands." The email also stated that Burisma officials "need to know in no uncertain terms that we will not and cannot intervene directly with domestic policymakers, and that we need to abide by FARA and any other U.S. laws in the strictest sense across the board." Biden wrote that his father's visit "could be a really good thing or it could end up creating too great an expectation. We need to temper expectations regarding that visit." He also wrote that his employer, the law firm Boies Schiller Flexner, could help Burisma through "direct discussions at state, energy and NSC." Other emails showed Biden and his business partner discussing inviting foreign business associates, including a Burisma executive, to attend an April 2015 dinner in Washington, where the vice president would stop by.


title: Hunter Biden

text: A July 2022 report from CNN authenticated emails which showed that Biden was struggling with large debt and overdue tax bills.


title: Hunter Biden

text: In October 2022, "The Washington Post" reported that federal agents had determined months ago that they had assembled enough evidence for a viable criminal case against Biden to charge him with crimes related to making false declarations during a gun purchase, as well as tax-related crimes. The next step is for Delaware U.S. Attorney David C. Weiss to decide on whether to file such charges.


title: Hunter Biden

text: Federal investigators have also been examining the lobbying firm Blue Star Strategies, which Burisma retained while Biden sat on its board, for possible illegal lobbying of American officials. There was no indication Biden was a subject of the investigation. Blue Star employees said in Senate testimony that Biden was included in emails about the firm's work but that he was not particularly involved. One of the firm's co-founders said Biden did not direct its work. Blue Star's work came after Burisma's owner was criticized by the United States State Department, and the firm's founders testified the firm had merely approached officials to determine the government's views of Burisma.


title: Hunter Biden

text: In October 2020, during the last weeks of the 2020 United States presidential election, the "New York Post" published an article, with the involvement of Donald Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and former chief strategist Steve Bannon, about a laptop computer of unknown origin and chain of custody that appeared to belong to Hunter Biden. The laptop contained an email describing what the "New York Post" characterized as a "meeting" between Joe Biden and Vadym Pozharskyi, a Burisma advisor, in 2015, though that characterization was disputed by witnesses. The email between Hunter Biden and Pozharskyi would later be authenticated.


title: Hunter Biden

text: The article's veracity was strongly questioned by most mainstream media outlets, analysts and intelligence officials, due to the unknown chain of custody of the laptop and its contents, and suspicion that it may have been part of a Russian disinformation campaign. As of 2022, "Vox" reported that no evidence had ever emerged "that the laptop's leak was a Russian plot." In March 2022, "The New York Times" reported that they found emails "from a cache of files that appears to have come from a laptop abandoned by Mr. Biden in a Delaware repair shop." Also in March, "The Washington Post" reported that two security experts confirmed the veracity of thousands of emails purportedly from Hunter Biden's laptop. However, "The vast majority of the data—and most of the nearly 129,000 emails it contained—could not be verified by either of the two security experts who reviewed the data for "The Post"." Among the emails that "The Washington Post" was able to authenticate was the Pozharskyi email that formed the basis of the "New York Post"'s original article. In May 2022, NBC News published an analysis of a copy of the hard drive they received from Giuliani and documents released by Republicans on two Senate committees. The analysis found that Biden's firm took in $11 million from 2013 to 2018 and spent the money quickly. The analysis also found that few of Biden's deals ever came to fruition.


title: Hunter Biden

text: In November 2022, CBS News published a forensic analysis they had commissioned of a clean "exact copy" of the laptop data, later provided by the shop owner to federal investigators, that predated versions widely circulated by Republican operatives to attack then-candidate Joe Biden before the 2020 presidential election. The cyber investigators found "no evidence that the user data had been modified, fabricated or tampered with". The chief technology officer of Computer Forensics Services said, "I have no doubt in my mind that this data was created by Hunter Biden, and that it came from a computer under Mr. Biden's control".


title: Hunter Biden

text: In February 2020, "The New York Times" reported that Biden had been painting as an "undiscovered artist" in his Hollywood Hills home. The report also displayed some of his paintings, including "Untitled #4 (a study in ink)" and "Untitled #3 (a signed work)". Biden's art dealer, Georges Bergès, hosted a private viewing for Biden in Los Angeles in Fall 2021, followed by an exhibition in New York. Bidens painting were put up for sale for as much as $500,000 per painting. This provoked conflict of interest concerns as well as concerns about a lack of transparency.


title: Hunter Biden

text: Biden's application for a position in the U.S. Navy Reserve was approved in May 2013. At age 43, Biden was accepted as part of a program that allows a limited number of applicants with desirable skills to receive commissions and serve in staff positions. Biden received an age-related waiver and a waiver due to a past drug-related incident; he was sworn in as a direct commission officer. Joe Biden administered his commissioning oath in a White House ceremony.


title: Hunter Biden

text: The following month, Biden tested positive for cocaine during a urinalysis test and was subsequently discharged administratively. Biden attributed the result to smoking cigarettes he had accepted from other smokers, claiming the cigarettes were laced with cocaine. He chose not to appeal the matter as it was unlikely that the panel would believe his explanation given his history with drugs and also due to the likelihood of news leaking to the press; it was ultimately revealed to "The Wall Street Journal" by a Navy official who provided the information.


title: Hunter Biden

text: Biden married Kathleen Buhle in 1993. They have three daughters: Naomi, Finnegan, and Maisy. The couple divorced in 2017. Biden began a relationship with Hallie Olivere Biden, widow of his brother Beau, in 2016. The relationship ended by 2019.


title: Hunter Biden

text: Biden is also the father of a daughter born to Lunden Alexis Roberts in Arkansas in August 2018. Roberts filed a paternity suit in May 2019, which was settled in March 2020 for an undisclosed amount.


title: Hunter Biden

text: Biden married South African filmmaker Melissa Cohen in May 2019. Their son Beau was born in March 2020 in Los Angeles.


title: Hunter Biden

text: Biden has had a life-long struggle with drug and alcohol abuse, and detailed his struggles in his memoir "Beautiful Things". He believes his addiction can be linked back to trauma from the 1972 motor vehicle accident that killed his mother and sister. Over the past two decades, Biden has been in and out of rehabilitation, with long periods of sobriety followed by relapses. Following the death of his brother Beau, his addiction escalated, and he claims to have been "smoking crack every 15 minutes." A detailed analysis of Hunter Biden's hard drive by NBC News showed that Biden and his firm were paid $11 million from 2013 to 2018, and the funds fueled his addiction. In his autobiography "Beautiful Things", he said that the money from Burisma "turned into a major enabler during my steepest skid into addiction" and "hounded me to spend recklessly, dangerously, destructively. Humiliatingly. So I did." In early 2019, he had an intervention.


title: Hunter Biden

text: Biden released a memoir discussing the trauma of the accident that claimed the lives of his mother and sister and his later addiction struggles, titled "Beautiful Things" on April 6, 2021. In "The New York Times", reviewer Elisabeth Egan described the book as "equal parts family saga, grief narrative and addict's howl."


title: Paris Hilton

text: Paris Whitney Hilton (born February 17, 1981) is an American media personality, businesswoman, model, entertainer, and socialite. Born in New York City, and raised there and in Beverly Hills, California, she is a great-granddaughter of Conrad Hilton, the founder of Hilton Hotels. Hilton first attracted tabloid attention in the late 1990s, when she became a fixture in NYC's social scene, and ventured into modeling at age 19, signing with Donald Trump's agency Trump Model Management. After David LaChapelle photographed her and sister Nicky for the September 2000 issue of "Vanity Fair", Hilton was proclaimed "New York's leading It Girl" in 2001. The reality television series "The Simple Life" (2003–2007), in which she starred with her friend Nicole Richie, and a leaked 2001 sex tape with her then-boyfriend Rick Salomon, later released as "1 Night in Paris" (2004), catapulted her into global fame.


title: Paris Hilton

text: Hilton published her debut book, "Confessions of an Heiress" (2004), which became a "New York Times" Best Seller, landed her first major film role in the horror remake "House of Wax" (2005), and released her eponymous debut studio album, "Paris" (2006), which reached number six on the "Billboard" 200 and respectively produced the successful single "Stars Are Blind". She has since starred in further films and television series, recorded a line of standalone singles, and performed as a disc jockey. Her media ventures include the reality television series "Paris Hilton's My New BFF" (2008–2009), "The World According to Paris" (2011), "Hollywood Love Story" (2018), "Cooking with Paris" (2021), and "Paris in Love" (2021–2022); the documentaries "Paris, Not France" (2008), "The American Meme" (2018), and "This Is Paris" (2020); as well as her podcast, "This is Paris" (2021–present), on iHeartRadio.


title: Paris Hilton

text: A polarizing and often derided celebrity, Hilton is credited with influencing the revival of the "famous for being famous" phenomenon throughout the 2000s, and was, for a number of years, one of the world's most ubiquitous public figures. Critics indeed suggest that she exemplifies the celebutante—a household name not through talent or work, but through inherited wealth and lavish lifestyle. "Forbes" included her in its Celebrity 100 in 2004, 2005, and 2006, and ranked her as the most "overexposed" celebrity in 2006 and 2008. Hilton has parlayed her media fame into numerous business endeavours. Under her company, she has produced content for broadcast media, launched a variety of product lines, and opened a chain of self-branded boutiques worldwide as well as an urban beach club in the Philippines. Her perfume line alone has brought in over US$2.5 billion in revenue to date.


title: Paris Hilton

text: Hilton was born on February 17, 1981, in New York City, to Richard Hilton, a businessman, and Kathy Hilton, a socialite and former child actress. The oldest of four children, she has one sister, Nicky Hilton (born 1983), and two brothers, Barron Hilton II (born 1989) and Conrad Hughes Hilton (born 1994). Her paternal great-grandfather was Conrad Hilton, who founded Hilton Hotels, while her maternal aunts are television personalities Kim and Kyle Richards. Hilton has Norwegian, German, Italian, English, Irish, and Scottish ancestry. The family followed the Catholic faith.


title: Paris Hilton

text: Hilton moved frequently in her youth, living in Beverly Hills, the Hamptons, and a suite in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Manhattan. Her relatives have described her as "very much a tomboy" who dreamed about becoming a veterinarian. Her mother recalled her saving money to buy monkeys, snakes, and goats, and once leaving "the snake out the cage [...] at the Waldorf". Hilton was raised in a very "sheltered, conservative" atmosphere; her parents were particularly strict and she was not allowed to date, wear make-up or certain types of clothes, or go to school dances. Her mother enrolled her in etiquette classes with the idea of introducing her as a debutante, which Hilton was at first reluctant to do, as she did not find it to be "real" or "natural". She described it as "very proper, very prim, almost like a "Stepford wife"". The family's social circle included figures such as Lionel Richie, Donald Trump, and Michael Jackson.


title: Paris Hilton

text: Growing up in Los Angeles, Hilton attended the Buckley School and St. Paul the Apostle School, finishing elementary school in 1995. Her freshman year of high school (1995–96) was spent at the Marywood-Palm Valley School in Rancho Mirage, California. In 1996, Hilton and her family left California for the East Coast. At 15, she attended Professional Children's School. She skated and played ice hockey while in high school.


title: Paris Hilton

text: In New York City, Hilton had a rebellious youth, regularly skipping classes and sneaking out to parties. On this period, Kathy, who used to contact the "New York Post" to locate her daughter's whereabouts, remarked: "Let's put it this way —it got very out of control and I was scared for her. And my husband was very scared for her. And, you know, those nightclubs go on all night." Her parents eventually sent her, then 16, to a series of boarding schools for emotionally troubled teens, including Provo Canyon School, where she says that she was mentally and physically abused by the staff. In her documentary "This Is Paris", Hilton and other former students from Provo Canyon School recall the abuses they faced, including solitary confinement, forced medication, restraint, battery and strangulation. She attended Provo for 11 months and was released in 1999 when she turned 18. She then attended the Dwight School before dropping out a few months later. "She knew no one at [Dwight]", said her mother in an interview, while a classmate described her as "sort of more sophisticated. She was different from everybody else". She later earned a GED certification.


title: Paris Hilton

text: With mother Kathy and sister Nicky, Hilton originally modeled as a child at charity events, and made an uncredited appearance in the fantasy film "Wishman" (1992). After relocating to NYC in 1996, Hilton's growing presence at nightclubs and high-profile events led her to develop a reputation as a socialite. She has recalled getting offers to show up in nightclubs as early as she was 16, when she obtained a counterfeited identity document in order to gain access to events. Her antics and late-night persona soon started attracting the spotlight from local tabloids. After becoming familiar with Paris and Nicky's social circle, Jason Binn, publisher of "Hamptons" magazine, stated: "They're little stars. They've become names. To them it's like a job. I believe they wake up every morning and say, 'O.K., where am I supposed to be tonight?'." That lifestyle conflicted with her family's conservative background and proved too "rebellious" for the young Paris, whose parents sent her to a series of boarding schools until she turned 18. Hilton resumed public appearances shortly afterwards, with a "New Yorker" profile by Bob Morris, published in October 1999, describing her and sister Nicky as "the littlest socialites in town [...] Without even a smile, they can breeze past the velvet ropes at Moomba or get a seat at Le Bilboquet". Businessman George J. Maloof Jr., for instance, flew Hilton in his private jet and paid her to attend, in a dress made from US$1 million in poker chips, the Palms Casino Resort opening in Las Vegas in November 2001.


title: Paris Hilton

text: Inspired by designers Patricia Field and Betsey Johnson, Hilton decided to pursue modeling, signing with Donald Trump's agency, T Management, at age 19. She modeled for Catherine Malandrino and Marc Bouwer, and posed alongside her sister for David LaChapelle in a shoot that was featured in the September 2000 issue of "Vanity Fair". On her persona, LaChapelle stated: "Paris had a charisma back then that you couldn't take your eyes off. She would giggle and laugh and be effervescent and take up a room". By 2001, Hilton had become "one of the biggest stars, off and on the catwalk," at New York Fashion Week, graced an advertising campaign for Italian label Iceberg, and appeared on magazines such as "Vogue" and "FHM". In addition to modeling, Hilton ventured into screen acting, playing an ill-fated character in the independent teen thriller "Sweetie Pie" (2000), and filming a cameo appearance as herself in the comedy "Zoolander" (2001), with Ben Stiller. In 2002, she appeared in Vincent Gallo's "Honey Bunny" video, played a "strung-out supermodel" in the 5-minute short "QIK2JDG", and starred as a socialite in the straight-to-DVD horror film "Nine Lives".


title: Paris Hilton

text: Hilton's breakout came in 2003, when she starred with her childhood friend and socialite counterpart Nicole Richie in the Fox reality series "The Simple Life", in which they lived for a month with a family in the rural community of Altus, Arkansas. The series premiered on December 2, 2003, shortly after the leak of Hilton's sex tape, and was a ratings success. Its first episode attracted 13 million viewers, increasing Fox's adult 18–49 rating by 79 percent. The high viewership was attributed to the exposure Hilton received for the homemade tape, while she became known for her onscreen dumb blonde persona. By 2004, she had taken on a number of supporting and guest-starring roles in films and scripted television series such as "Raising Helen" and "The O.C.", released an autobiography co-written by Merle Ginsberg, "", which was seventh on "The New York Times" Best Seller list, and introduced a lifestyle brand with a purse collection for the Japanese label Samantha Thavasa, a jewelry line sold on Amazon.com as well as a perfume line by Parlux Fragrances. Originally planned for a small release, high demand for her first fragrance led to increased availability by December 2004. Its introduction was followed by a 47-percent increase in Parlux sales, primarily of the Hilton-branded perfume. After this success, Parlux has released numerous more perfumes with her name, including fragrances for men.


title: Paris Hilton

text: In February 2005, Hilton hosted NBC's "Saturday Night Live", with Keane as the musical guest, and in May, the slasher film "House of Wax"—her first major film role— was released in theaters, to mixed reviews. Writing for "View London", Matthew Turner remarked that Hilton "does better than you might expect", while "TV Guide" called Hilton "talentless". Her role earned her the Teen Choice Award for Best Scream, the 2005 Razzie for Worst Supporting Actress, and a nomination for Best Frightened Performance at the 2006 MTV Movie Awards. "House of Wax" grossed over US$70 million worldwide. In May 2005, Carl's Jr. aired a television advertisement, promoting its Spicy Burger product, which featured Hilton in a provocative swimsuit soaping up a Bentley automobile and crawling all over it before taking a big bite out of her burger and giving her signature phrase, "That's hot." By the fall of 2005, she had published her second book, "", and introduced another fragrance, "Just Me".


title: Paris Hilton

text: "The Simple Life" was canceled by Fox after three seasons in 2005 following a dispute between Hilton and Richie. Neither Richie nor Hilton spoke publicly about their split, although it was speculated that they fell out after Richie showed one of Hilton's homemade sex tapes to a group of their friends. They reconciled in October 2006. After "The Simple Life" was cancelled, other networks (NBC, The WB, VH1 and MTV) were interested in obtaining the rights for new seasons of the show. On November 28, 2005, E! announced that it had picked up "The Simple Life", ordering the production of a fourth season and obtaining the rights to repeat the first three seasons. Shooting for the new season began on February 27, 2006. The fourth–season premiere of the show was a ratings success for its new network.


title: Paris Hilton

text: Hilton released her self-titled debut album, "Paris", on August 22, 2006. The album reached number six on the "Billboard" 200, and sold over 600,000 copies worldwide. Its lead single, "Stars Are Blind", found global success. It was played on more than 125 pop stations in the United States, and reached the top ten in 17 countries. Critical reception was generally mixed, but AllMusic called the album "more fun than anything released by Britney Spears or Jessica Simpson". In 2006, Hilton also top-billed as vain, dumb blonde characters in the comedy films "Bottoms Up" and "National Lampoon's Pledge This!", both of which received DVD releases in North America. Australia's "Urban Cinefile", describing Hilton in "Bottoms Up", wrote that she "spends most of her screen time flicking her hair as she delivers lines like 'books are those things you read,'" and she reportedly missed the Cannes Film Festival premiere for "Pledge This!", protesting the addition of several nude scenes, which resulted in Worldwide Entertainment Group suing Hilton in August 2008, at the Miami District Court, alleging that she did not fulfill her contractual agreement to provide "reasonable promotion and publicity" for the film, despite receiving a US$1 million fee for the role. Hilton licensed her name to Gameloft for their 2006 mobile video game "Paris Hilton's Diamond Quest".


title: Paris Hilton

text: "The Simple Life" finished its run with its fifth season, which debuted on Memorial Day, on May 28, 2007, and ended on August 5, 2007. That year, Hilton introduced her fourth perfume, Can Can, and her DreamCatchers line of hair extensions with Hair Tech International, signed a licensing agreement with Antebi for a signature footwear line (Paris Hilton Footwear, featuring stilettos, platforms, flats, wedges and a sports collection), and launched a line of tops, dresses, coats and jeans at the Kitson Boutique in Los Angeles. She also posed nude (covered with gold paint) to promote "Rich Prosecco", a canned version of the Italian sparkling wine, traveling to Germany to appear in print ads for the wine, and modeled for 2 B Free.