Alexander Smirnov, a former FBI informant and whistleblower against the Biden family, is facing serious jail time after pleading guilty Thursday to tax fraud and lying to investigators.
Smirnov always admitted he exaggerated, or totally made-up, claims about alleged bribes paid to the Biden family in whistleblower statements. Smirnov cooperated with Republican impeachment efforts over Hunter Biden’s connections in Ukraine.
Now that Hunter has been pardoned by his father, President Joe Biden, Smirnov is heading to jail.
The 43-year-old dual US-Israeli citizen told Justice Department prosecutors he made a “false and fictitious record” in his 2020 report to the FBI.
In the whistleblower report, Smirnox had said Burisma Holdings owner Mykola Zlochevsky paid $5 million each to Joe and Hunter Biden. Under the plea agreement with special counsel David Weiss, Smirnov faces up to six years in prison and must pay $675,502 in restitution.
Prosecutors said Smirnov claimed an executive hired Hunter Biden to “protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems.” His actual contacts with Burisma occurred in 2017, prosecutors said, when Biden was no longer vice president and therefore “would have had no ability to influence U.S. policy.”
Smirnov, who served as an FBI informant since 2010, pleaded guilty to numerous charges of tax evasion on $2.15 million in unreported income. The agreement revealed contact with Russian intelligence officials.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer had previously called Smirnov a “highly credible” whistleblower while leading the impeachment investigations into the White House.
As part of their evidence, the FBI said that during a Sep. 2023 interview Smirnov “expressed bias” against Biden’s re-election campaign. Prosecutors also said Smirnov “promoted a new false narrative after he said he met with Russian officials.”
Hunter Biden was paid huge sums to serve on Burisma’s board from 2014 to 2019 despite having no background in energy, earning “up to $1 million per year — despite having no past experience in the energy industry and while his dad oversaw Ukraine as part of his vice presidential portfolio.” Yet Biden’s Department of Justice prosecutors said they found no evidence of alleged bribe payments.
Smirnov has been detained in California since his February indictment. The plea agreement indicates “prosecutors and the defense are expected to recommend at least two years in jail.”