LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — A former Federal Bureau of Investigation informant accused of lying about the Biden family has now been indicted on a separate case involving tax-related charges.
A newly-unsealed indictment from California federal court claims Alexander Smirnov evaded paying taxes on more than $2 million in income that he received from multiple sources between 2020 and 2022.
According to the indictment, Smirnov spent $1.4 million on a condominium in Las Vegas, over $122,000 to lease a Bentley, and hundreds of thousands of dollars on clothes, jewelry, and accessories for both him and his domestic partner.
Despite spending that money, the indictment states that on a business credit card application from June 2022, Smirnov claimed he only made $60,000 in total annual income and $250,000 in gross business income. He also listed his current job as being in real estate.
The indictment states Smirnov created false forms in order to conceal how much money he was actually receiving.
"The Defendant created and filed false Forms 1040, U.S. Individual Income Tax Returns, for himself and in Domestic Partner's name that included false and fictitious income and expenses," the indictment reads in part. "The Defendant told [a] professional tax return preparer that he would not disclose how he earned any income and that the professional tax return preparer should not inquire about how he earned his income. The Defendant also instructed the tax return preparer to delete any emails or messages with the Defendant."
Smirnov is facing multiple counts of tax evasion and filing false tax returns.
Smirnov's attorneys, David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld, said that their client "intends to vigorously fight these allegations with the same intensity as he has fought the original indictment."
You may remember that back in February, I told you that Smirnov was arrested at Harry Reid International Airport after being accused of lying to the FBI about President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.
The indictment alleges that in March 2017, Smirnov told an FBI agent that he had a phone call with the owner of Ukrainian industrial conglomerate Burisma Holdings concerning the company's interest in acquiring a U.S. company and making an initial public offering on a U.S.-based stock exchange.
The indictment alleges Smirnov reported he had two meetings in 2015 and/or 2016. FBI agents claim Smirnov falsely claimed that during these meetings, executives associated with Burisma told him they had hired Hunter to "protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems." He also said executives paid $5 million each to Hunter and Joe Biden while the senior Biden was serving as vice president so that Hunter "will take care of all those issues through his dad."
That claim became central to the Republican impeachment inquiry of President Biden in Congress.
Smirnov is charged with making a false statement and creating a false and fictitious record. The charges were filed in Los Angeles, where he lived for 16 years before relocating to Las Vegas two years ago.
Smirnov has pleaded not guilty to those charges and his trial in that case has been pushed to Jan. 8.
