An ex-FBI informant who once lived in Calabasas was sentenced Wednesday to six years behind bars for fabricating a story that President Joe Biden and son Hunter each took $5 million bribes from the owner of a Ukrainian energy company.
Alexander Smirnov, 44, most recently a resident of Las Vegas, pleaded guilty last month to federal charges of creating a false record in a federal investigation and three counts of tax evasion for failing to pay taxes and penalties on $2.1 million in income for 2020 through 2022, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Smirnov, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen, was accused in a 37-page, two-count indictment of making false statements to FBI agents in June 2020, when he told them about meetings with an executive from Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company that employed Hunter Biden as an attorney and later as a member of its corporate board.
The defendant also told agents that Burisma executives made $5 million payments to both Joe and Hunter Biden when Joe Biden was vice president, papers filed in L.A. federal court show.
No evidence emerged that the allegations against the Bidens were true, but the story was taken up by some Republicans, who made the unverified claims part of their effort to impeach President Biden.
According to his plea deal, Smirnov must pay $675,502 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service for the tax charges. U.S. District Judge Otis Wright II also ordered a special assessment of $400, the judgment order shows.
Upon release from prison, Smirnov will be placed on supervised release for a term of one year, Wright ordered.
Smirnov’s attorneys had asked for no more than four years imprisonment.