An ex-FBI informant who once lived in Calabasas has agreed to plead guilty to federal charges, including a count alleging he fabricated a story that President Joe Biden and son Hunter each took $5 million bribes from the owner of a Ukrainian energy company, according to court papers filed Thursday.
Alexander Smirnov, 44, most recently a resident of Las Vegas, is expected to enter a plea to creating a false record in a federal investigation, obstructing justice and failing to pay taxes and penalties on $2.1 million in income for 2020 through 2022, according to his plea agreement filed Thursday in L.A. federal court.
A date for his guilty plea hearing has not yet been scheduled.
Smirnov, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen, was initially accused in a 37-page, two-count indictment of making false statements to FBI agents in June 2020, when he allegedly told them about meetings with an executive from Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company which employed Hunter Biden as an attorney and later as a member of its corporate board.
Smirnov also allegedly told agents that Burisma executives made $5 million payments to both Joe and Hunter Biden when Joe Biden was vice president, court papers show. Prosecutors strongly denied the allegations against the Bidens.
Smirnov faces a sentence of up to six years in federal prison, according to his plea deal, which states he will be required to pay $675,502 in restitution.