FBI probing terroristic threat against McMinnville couple suing Joe Biden's brother

Jamie Satterfield | Knoxville

Show Caption Hide Caption McMinnville businessman Michael Frey describes first meeting with Joe Biden's brother Jim Biden McMinnville businessman Michael Frey describes first meeting with Joe Biden's brother Jim Biden

The FBI is investigating the delivery — via the mail — of a terroristic threat to a McMinnville couple who are suing the brother of Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden, Knox News has confirmed.

The threat came in August in a plain white envelope to the McMinnville home of Michael Frey and his wife, Natalie Frey, just days after Knox News publicly revealed their claims of fraud and deception against Biden’s brother, Jim Biden, in a federal lawsuit.

Inside the envelope was what appeared to be blood-stained currency from a Middle Eastern country commonly known as a haven for terror groups and a “torture ticket” — a voucher for the infliction of torture.

The Freys revealed the receipt of the threat in an exclusive interview with Knox News late last month. The U.S. Attorney’s office confirmed this week the threat was under investigation by the FBI. The office and the FBI declined to comment further.

Knox News has reviewed copies of the envelope, the currency and the torture voucher but agreed at the request of federal authorities not to reveal the country from which the currency was issued.

Attorney George Mesires, who represents Jim Biden and the other defendants in the Freys’s federal lawsuit, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Lawsuit: Jim Biden, partners stole plan

The Freys founded Diverse Medical Management and partnered with Dr. Mohannad Azzam to create a blueprint for turning struggling rural hospitals into one-stop shops for physical and mental health services for residents.

The Freys and Azzam say in a lawsuit filed earlier this year in U.S. District Court by attorney Robert Peal that Jim Biden used his brother’s star power to convince them to turn over that blueprint and then stole it — pitching it to Turkish investors as a “white paper” bearing the names of “His and Her Excellency Jim and Sarah Biden" and omitting the names of Frey and Azzam.

They allege Michael Lewitt, a hedge fund manager whose claims of money management expertise landed him on the pages of Forbes magazine and The New York Times, partnered with Jim Biden in the ploy.

Lewitt’s Third Friday Total Return Hedge Fund has already settled — under seal — with the Freys and Azzam.

Amer Ruston, owner of the Platinum Group USA hedge fund, and Americore Health rural hospital operator and owner Grant White are also defendants in the litigation. They are all alleged to have played a role, according to the lawsuit.

Jim Biden, Ruston and the remaining defendants in the lawsuit deny they stole the plan and instead say the Freys and Azzam were business flops who deceived them in hopes of getting an influx of cash.

'They were very gracious'

The Freys said both in the lawsuit and in an interview with Knox News their business model was working so well that it lured outside investors such as Jim Biden. They say Jim Biden courted them, even inviting them to dinner with his wife, Sara Biden, and to stay overnight at the Biden home in Pennsylvania in September 2018.

“We really opened up to them that night about our backgrounds, where we came from,” Michael Frey said. “They were very gracious. I felt like they were being compassionate and generous.”

Natalie Frey said she revealed personal details about struggling family members who had inspired the couple to launch their business in the first place.

“We literally bared our soul to them — what we had went through and how this is not for us about making millions out of this,” she said. “For us this was very personal. Our (early) investors are people we see every day. Two of them live in our own neighborhood.”

The Freys said the Bidens assured them investors would be lured to the project because of Joe Biden’s influence alone and that the Democratic presidential hopeful could even use their plan to create a nationwide one — if elected.

“All the promises were on the Biden name,” Michael Frey said. “Everything was on the honor of the Biden name. I don’t know how many times (Jim Biden) said that.”

After that dinner, the Freys and Azzam agreed to turn over their one-stop medical shopping blueprint to Jim Biden and Lewitt, the couple said.

Over the next several months, their lawsuit alleges, Jim Biden and Lewitt repeatedly pushed the Freys and Azzam to borrow money and buy up failing hospitals and promised Turkish investment money was on the way.

It wasn’t.

“We basically got left hung out to dry,” Michael Frey said.

David and Goliath?

The Freys said they found themselves with loans they couldn’t pay and payroll they couldn’t meet. They hired Peal to file suit and set out to rescue their company and the patients and providers they served.

“This is about the communities that were impacted by this,” Michael Frey said. “You’ve got people who could not feed their families. You’ve got people who had their electric turned off. We’ve had to start from scratch. We had to start right back here in our back yard. It was back to square one. We didn’t have time to sit and sulk.”

In August, Michael Frey was barely sleeping, his wife said, and had just arrived home when he pulled an envelope from the mailbox with “M Frey” written in blue ink and the couple’s address written on it.

“I just had a feeling,” Michael Frey said. “I held this as far away from me as I could because there was something about it that seemed off to me. I took my key to open the envelope real slow.”

Natalie Frey still cries at the memory of her husband’s face as he walked inside the house with the envelope.

“He hadn’t slept well in weeks,” she said. “He meets me at the door. He had just barely opened it. He handed it to me and said, ‘You need to call (Peal).’ I just lost it. I was hysterical. My kids are here. I thought, ‘Is someone watching us right now?’”

The Freys packed up their children and sent them to stay with relatives while Peal arranged a meeting with the FBI.

“It enraged me,” Michael Frey said of the threatening mail. “Now you’re dealing with my family. I’m not running from anybody. With everything going on in the world, you can’t turn your back on this kind of stuff. My parents, her parents were a nervous wreck.”

But it is not deterring them from pursuing their lawsuit, he said.

“The question has been posed to me — is it worth it? My answer is very simple,” he said. “It’s David and Goliath. We’re not trying to be martyrs or save the world but at some point this kind of stuff has got to stop. We had to dig ourselves out of a tremendous hole.”

His wife added, “I’m a strong person. I am not living in fear of this.”