Special counsel Robert Mueller has lined up yet another expected guilty plea in his sprawling Russia probe, this time with a Dutch lawyer who is the son-in-law of a Russian oligarch who will admit he held back emails and information from the FBI.
According to an information released Tuesday by the special counsel’s office, Alex Van der Zwaan will plead guilty to making ‘false, fictitious, and fraudulent statements’ to investigators.
Van der Zwaan, 33, is a Dutch citizen and London-based lawyer whose firm assisted in efforts on behalf of Ukrainian former president Viktor Yanukovych. Van der Zwaan, did work as an associate for the law firm Skadden, Arps, Meagher, & Flom LLP on behalf of the project.
Manafort, a former campaign chair for the Trump campaign, has been already been charged with conspiracy and money laundering.
Van der Zwaan will admit that he wasn’t truthful about his dealings with Rick Gates, Manafort’s deputy, who is also charged and has been in negotiations about cooperating with prosecutors.
Attorney Alex van der zwaan Mueller is expected to plead guilty to lying to Robert Mueller’s investigators
He also made false statements about his conversations with someone identified as ‘Person A.’
According to the government, Van der Zwaan is prepared to admit that he lied to the government about his email communications and failed to furnish information that investigators had requested.
He lied when he said his last communication with Rick Gates was in August 2016, according to the government, when in fact in September 2016 ‘he spoke with both [Manafort deputy Rick] Gates and Person A’ about a report and ‘surreptitiously recorded the calls.’
He had said that his last communication consisted of an innocuous text message, according to investigators.
Van Der Zwaan is the son of Russian oligarch German Khan.
He as charged Feb. 16 in federal court in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Robert Mueller is expected to get a guilty plea Tuesday from Alex Van der Zwaan, who will plead guilty to making ‘false, fictitious, and fraudulent statements’ to investigators
He also ‘deleted and otherwise did not produce’ emails sought by the special counsel and a law firm – thereby withholding information from the probe, which has already led to multiple guilty pleas, and last week unveiled an indictment of 13 Russians working for a troll farm attempting to influence the 2016 presidential election.
Van Der Zwaan is the son-in-law of Russian oligarch German Khan, the Kyiv Post reported.
Van Der Zwaan married Eva Khan, German Khan’s daughter, at Luton Hoo Hotel, a posh estate outside of London. The festivities lasted three days.
The Los Angeles Times reported Sunday that Gates will himself plead guilty to fraud charges and will agree to testify against his longtime partner, Manafort.
Alex Van Der Zwaan wedding to Eva Khan. Circled is her father, German Khan, Russian billionaire
The information provided by the government says Van Der Zwaan’s false statements were made in connection to his work as an attorney working for a law firm whose client was the Ukraine Ministry of Justice. The firm was helping prepare a report on the trial of Yulia Tymoshenko.
Tymoshenko is a former Ukrainian prime minister who was tried and jailed for fraud in proceedings European governments labeled politically motivated.
He was part of a team dispatched by his firm, working along with Manafort, to bolster Yanukovych’s contention that the jailing of his political rival was not politically motivated.
The Justice Department asked the firm for documents related to the report, the New York Times reported in September.