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Published December 28, 2023, 6:00 am ET
A major Democratic donor who Joe Biden described as “one of my closest friends” could benefit from a ban on the latest version of Apple Watches – which the president has already confirmed.
The Biden-backed ban was temporarily stayed by a federal appeals court on Wednesday as Apple fights to overturn it — and end a long-standing claim by medical technology company Masimo that the Silicon Valley giant stole its intellectual property.
Joe Kiani, the multimillionaire founder and CEO of Masimo, has donated millions to Democrats and is a particularly close supporter of Biden, including giving $1 million to his Biden Foundation.
But his legal battle with Apple led to the U.S. Commission on International Trade ruling that the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 models infringed Masimo's patent on blood oxygen level measuring technology and should be banned from importing them.
The White House had until Christmas Day to lift the ban by getting U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to block it, but decided against it and it was implemented.
This is how Joe Biden greeted Joe Kiani in 2015 when he was vice president. Kiani became one of the president's biggest donors in the 2020 election and was rewarded with a role on an influential White House advisory group. MediaNews Group via Getty Images Hunter Biden and his wife Melissa Cohen were guests of Joe and Sarah Kianis at their sprawling $50 million ranch and vineyard three hours north of Los Angeles. SplashNews.com In April, the beleaguered first son sought refuge with his wife and young son on the Kianis' 8,000-acre ranch in California. SplashNews.com
Then it was put on hold by a federal appeals court on Wednesday as Apple formally appealed the ruling and successfully sought an emergency order putting the ban on hold.
The amount of money at stake for Apple or Masimo is unknown.
But Kiani has maintained exceptionally close ties with Biden, who spoke at an event in 2019 where Kiani was in the audience and described him as “one of my closest friends,” the Associated Press reported.
Kiani, 59, is an Iranian-American businessman who is one of Biden's biggest donors.
Kiani and his housewife Sarah are major donors to the Democrats and their causes. Joe and Sarah Kiani were among the guests at the Biden White House state dinner for France's Emmanuel Macron in December 2022. C-SPAN
In addition to a $1 million donation to the Biden Foundation, Kiani donated $750,000 to the pro-Biden Unite the Country PAC in 2020, part of nearly $3 million he spent on the campaign of the President, the Super PAC and the inaugural committee. He is also a major donor to the Democratic Party.
A spokesman for Masimo said the CEO and his “team” never lobbied Biden or Tai in the Apple Watch dispute and accused Apple CEO Tim Cook of lobbying of his own.
“This dispute was never about money for Masimo,” the spokesman said. “The company’s motivation was and remains to hold Apple accountable for violating Masimo’s patents and to restore integrity to the market.”
The White House declined to comment. Tai's office did not respond to a request for comment. The post has reached out to Apple for comment.
The Biden administration allowed a federal ban on the latest version of the Apple Watch after Joe Kiani's tech company filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against the tech giant. Portal The Apple Watch dispute puts Kiani at odds with Apple CEO Tim Cook, who was at the White House with the president in June. Biden to discuss technology and investments with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Kiani and his wife Sarah were guests at a state dinner for French President Emmanuel Macron in December 2022 and then at a White House reception for Nowruz, the Iranian New Year, in March 2023.
“Thank you @POTUS and @FLOTUS for celebrating #Nowruz at the White House.” Kiani posted on X. “You truly were the president of all Americans.”
A month later, in April, Kiani and his wife Sarah welcomed their first son, Hunter Biden and his wife Melissa Cohen, to their sprawling 8,000-acre Kiani Reservation, three hours north of Los Angeles.
The $50 million Santa Ynez estate includes a main house and a guest house, both with a pool, tennis courts and a vineyard.
Catherine Kiani landed a job with Jill Biden after graduating from Tony Liberal Arts School, Claremont McKenna College. In 2002, her father posted this photo on his Instagram in which she shows off her voice for the first time. joe.kiani/Instagram Kiani's daughter gushed about her White House experience in her Tony College's alumni magazine. CMC Magazine
Kiani has maintained ties with the Biden family in other ways. According to emails and text messages found on Hunter Biden's laptop, he offered struggling Biden niece Caroline Biden an $85,000-a-year job in July 2018.
The job would have allowed her to move to Los Angeles – where she wanted to be close to her cousin Hunter to serve two years of probation for a stolen credit card – but she scoffed that the offer was actually “below minimum wage.”
The Bidens, in turn, helped the Kianis.
Kiani was appointed to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology in 2021. The panel is the only body “charged with making science, technology and innovation policy recommendations to the President and the White House,” giving Kiani a powerful platform.
Kiani posed in front of this portrait of Biden as a senator and uses his social media to regularly praise the president for his policies. joe.kiani/Instagram
And Kiani's daughter Catherine got her first job out of college, working in Jill Biden's office in the East Wing of the White House.
Catherine, now a student at the University of Pennsylvania's Penn Carey Law School, gushed about meeting graduates of her prestigious liberal arts college, Claremont McKenna College, in Claremont, California, at the White House state dinner for Macron, where her parents were in attendance were were guests.
And the first lady spoke at a panel discussion Kiani organized in 2021 at the high-profile technology conference and film festival SXSW in Austin, Texas, to advance the “civic engagement platform” he launched in 2020.
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