Attorney pleads guilty in Russia probe.
WASHINGTON — The Dutch son-in-law of one of Russia’s wealthiest men pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court in Washington to making false statements in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Alex van der Zwaan was charged with lying to the FBI about his contacts with Rick Gates, who served as a top official on President Donald Trump’s campaign and a longtime business partner of former campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
Based in London, van der Zwaan worked for the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, which worked with Manafort and Gates when they served as political consultants in Ukraine. Van der Zwaan is the son-in-law of German Khan, a billionaire and an owner of Alfa Group, Russia’s largest financial and industrial investment group.
In a court appearance, the 33-year-old pleaded guilty to one count of making a false statement to investigators, a felony. He is facing a recommended sentence ranging from zero to six months in prison when he is sentenced April 3.
His plea deal comes as Gates has been in plea negotiations with the special counsel, according to a person familiar with the situation. Gates’ attorneys declined to comment.
Mueller charged Manafort and Gates in October with conspiracy, fraud and money laundering related to lobbying work they did for a Russian-friendly political party in Ukraine and former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. Both men have pleaded not guilty.
With van der Zwaan, Mueller’s sprawling probe has so far netted four guilty pleas, including from former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
On Friday, Mueller’s team also indicted 13 Russians and three Russian companies with meddling in the 2016 election through a social-media campaign in which they falsely posed as Americans to promote Trump, disparage Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and sow discord among voters.
Like the Manafort and Gates charges, van der Zwaan’s case is rooted in Ukraine, where Manafort worked as an international political consultant starting in 2005.
In a two-page charging document, prosecutors alleged that van der Zwaan falsely told federal investigators that he last communicated with Gates in mid-August 2016 through an innocuous text message.
Prosecutors said van der Zwaan was lying, and that he spoke to Gates and another unnamed person in September 2016 using encrypted communications — conversations that he recorded.
Prosecutors did not identify the second person with whom van der Zwaan spoke other than to say that the person was a longtime business associate of Manafort who was principally based in Ukraine at the time and spoke to van der Zwaan in Russian.
Prosecutors said van der Zwaan also deleted emails rather than turning them over to Skadden, which was gathering documents for the special counsel. One document he deleted, prosecutors said, was an email requesting that he use encrypted communications.
The communication between van der Zwaan and Gates came shortly after Manafort resigned from Trump’s campaign in the wake of a New York Times report that alleged Manafort had accepted off-the-books cash payments for his work in Ukraine. Gates continued to work for the campaign through the election and later worked for Trump’s inaugural committee.
In court, prosecutor Andrew Weissmann said investigators spoke with van der Zwaan on Nov. 3 and again on Dec. 1 as part of the special counsel’s examination of possible violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act by Manafort, Gates “and others.” The law requires people to register with the Justice Department before lobbying or performing public-relations work for foreign governments and political parties.