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As Joe Biden’s son-in-law invests in COVID-19 response

When the boutique tech firm Yosi Health developed software aimed at streamlining the nation's coronavirus vaccine effort, CEO Hari Prasad sought help from one of its earliest investors -- a company with a special government connection.

The investor was StartUp Health, and that special connection came through its chief medical officer, Howard Krein, who is married to President Joe Biden's daughter.

That detail that was not lost on Yosi's Prasad, who reached out to StartUp Health in December with a request to introduce their platform to government health officials.

"Our goal with StartUp Health is to leverage their relationships and work with state and federal agencies," he explained in an interview with ABC News.

As Joe Biden’s son-in-law invests in COVID-19 response, questions of family and ethics could resurface
Howard Krein is one of the founders of a health care venture capital firm.

During the 2020 presidential campaign, attention on the Biden family focused largely on his son, Hunter Biden. But experts say it is the president's son-in-law who could present fresh ethical challenges for the new administration.

"Howard Krein is playing with fire," said Meredith McGehee, the executive director of Issue One, a nonpartisan ethics watchdog group. "If he gets too close to that flame -- if he is trying to either cash in on his relationship with the president, or he is trying to influence policy -- the flame is going to get him. And it is not worth it to him or to Biden."

A renowned Philadelphia-based head and neck surgeon who married Biden's daughter Ashley in 2012, Krein helps oversee StartUp Health investments in hundreds of companies, including some hoping to break through with the federal agencies battling the global coronavirus pandemic.

Since 2011, when Krein founded the firm with his brother Steven Krein and veteran tech entrepreneur Unity Stoakes, Joe Biden has been an active supporter of the venture -- headlining corporate conferences and inviting the company's executives to the Oval Office to meet then-President Barack Obama.

When the COVID-19 crisis emerged during Biden's bid for the White House, Krein stepped up in the spring to advise his father-in-law's campaign in an unofficial role on potential pandemic response plans -- an arrangement that garnered scrutiny at the time, given StartUp Health's push to invest in firms that were looking to tailor products to help the pandemic response.

Now, with Biden in office, Krein's involvement with StartUp Health has prompted more tough questions, ethicists and tech industry experts told ABC News. Among them: Should Krein advise companies backed by StartUp Health in their efforts to win lucrative government contracts? Should he weigh in with his father-in-law on policy decisions that may benefit those companies? And will he obtain sensitive government information that may help inform investment decisions?

"Dr. Krein presents an ethical dilemma because he's being placed in a position where people want him to deliver access and information that will provide them with a competitive advantage," said Scott Amey, general counsel at the nonpartisan Project on Government Oversight, which investigates possible conflicts of interest and allegations of waste or fraud in federal government.

"At the same time, Biden has to ensure that family and friends' private matters don't merge with official government actions," Amey said. "This situation will take a good amount of transparency and oversight to ensure that lines are not crossed and that ethics standards are upheld."

Krein did not respond to multiple inquiries from ABC News. In a statement to ABC News, StartUp Health spokesperson Jennifer Hankin said Krein "does not make investment decisions at StartUp Health nor does he advise or assist companies on obtaining government contracts."

"His role as Chief Medical Officer at StartUp Health is to provide a clinician's perspective into our mission to transform health," Hankin said.

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