Former FBI informant Alexander Smirnov told the agency in 2020 that executives at the Ukrainian energy firm Burisma Holdings paid Joe and Hunter Biden millions of dollars to "protect" them "from all kinds of problems."

However, Smirnov acknowledged in court earlier this week that his bombshell bribery allegations were false. 

Source admitted to giving federal authorities "a false and fictitious record"

According to the New York Post, that admission came on Thursday as part of a plea agreement Smirnov has entered into with Special Counsel David Weiss.

The 43-year-old dual US-Israeli citizen confessed to having created "a false and fictitious record" concerning the president and his son.

FBI informant pleads guilty to lying about $10M Biden bribery payments to Joe, Hunter https://t.co/oKZb2tlWg6 pic.twitter.com/ThQ7pDvkZk

— New York Post (@nypost) December 12, 2024

This included telling federal investigators that Joe and Hunter Biden each received $5 million bribery payments from Burisma Holdings owner Mykola Zlochevsky.

Those funds were said to have been handed over in exchange for the elder Biden's assistance in removing former Ukrainian Prosecutor-General Viktor Shokin from office. Joe Biden was at the time serving as vice president under President Barack Obama.

Hunter Biden's salary from Burisma was cut in half after his father left office

Smirnov further told the FBI that Burisma appointed Hunter Biden and his business partner Devon Archer to its board of directors to secure further influence.

The Post noted how material found on Hunter Biden's abandoned laptop showed that he and Archer were paid some $6.4 million by Burisma between March 2014 and April 2019.

Interestingly, the newspaper also noted that Hunter Biden saw his salary get cut in half shortly after his father ceased to be vice president.

Smirnov's assertions were compiled in a 2020 FBI FD-1023 form, with Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley making the document public last year.

Smirnov pleaded guilty to tax evasion on $2.15 million worth of unreported income

As part of Smirnov's agreement with Weiss, he also pleaded guilty to tax evasion in connection with $2.15 million worth of unreported income earned between 2020 and 2022.

He will be sentenced in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California and faces up to six years in prison along with one year of supervised release.

What's more, the former FBI informant could be forced to pay as much as $675,502 in restitution. The Post indicated that both prosecutors and Smirnov's defense attorneys are expected to request two years behind bars.