Judge accepts guilty plea of ex-FBI informant arrested in Las Vegas

Katelyn Newberg, Las Vegas Review-Journal on Dec 16, 2024

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A federal judge has accepted a guilty plea from a former FBI informant who admitted to tax evasion and lying to officials about an alleged multimillion-dollar bribery scheme involving President Joe Biden and his son.

Alexander Smirnov filed documents in a California federal court on Thursday agreeing to plead guilty to the charges. Las Vegas attorney David Chesnoff, one of the lawyers representing Smirnov, confirmed that a judge accepted the plea during a hearing Monday morning in a California federal court.

A sentencing hearing is scheduled for Jan. 8, Chesnoff said, which is when a jury trial for Smirnov had previously been scheduled.

Smirnov pleaded guilty to one charge of causing a false and fictitious record in a federal investigation and three counts of tax evasion, court records show.

He admitted to falsely reporting to the FBI that executives with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma paid President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, $5 million each in an alleged bribery scheme. The false claim became central to a Republican impeachment inquiry in Congress.

Smirnov, a dual U.S. and Israeli citizen, also admitted to not reporting more than $2 million in income in recent years.

According to the plea agreement, Smirnov negotiated a sentence of four to six years in federal prison, followed by a year of supervised release. He faced a maximum of 35 years imprisonment for the charges, according to court documents.

Smirnov was arrested in Las Vegas in February at Harry Reid International Airport after returning from a trip overseas.

Prosecutors have said Smirnov made false claims to the FBI in 2020 and again during an interview with officials in September 2023.

During that interview, Smirnov “promoted a new false narrative” about Hunter Biden and the Ukrainian energy company. Prosecutors have accused Smirnov of spreading misinformation about Hunter and Joe Biden while the president was the presumed nominee for this year’s presidential election.

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