UPDATE:
JUST IN: Alex van der Zwaan, an attorney with ties to Trump campaign official Rick Gates, pleaded guilty Tuesday afternoon to lying to the FBI. His plea was accepted by the judge, reports @davidgshortell from the court. https://t.co/wTXOkJQICc
— Marshall Cohen (@MarshallCohen) February 20, 2018
Special Counsel Robert Mueller has charged a lawyer connected to the case against Paul Manafort and Rick Gates with lying to federal investigators. In an interesting twist, that lawyer – Alex Van Der Zwaan – "is the son-in-law of Russian oligarch German Khan."
WaPo:
Khan is a billionaire and an owner of Alfa Group, Russia’s largest financial and industrial investment group, according to Forbes.
Attorney Alex Van Der Zwaan has been charged with making false statements about past communications with former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates.
While Gates was never a client of Van Der Zwann’s according to a source with knowledge of the relationship, the two were connected because of Gates’ past work representing the Ukraine government on behalf of his former boss Paul Manafort.
(...)
The special counsel’s office said in their court filing that Van Der Zwaan, who worked for a law firm that did work in Ukraine in 2012, made false statements about communications in 2016 with Gates and an unnamed person.
The communication took place when Gates was still a member of the Trump campaign team.
CNN:
Alex Van Der Zwaan, who is expected to plead guilty Tuesday afternoon, is also accused of lying about the failure to turn over an email communication to the special counsel's office. He was speaking with investigators about his work with international law firm Skadden Arps in 2012, when Manafort arranged for the firm to be hired by the Ukrainian Minister of Justice to prepare a report on the trial of Yulia Tymoshenko.
WaPo:
Tymoshenko was imprisoned by former president Viktor Yanukovych for signing a controversial gas supply deal in 2009 with Russia ...
U.S. prosecutors in Mueller’s office said the case was related to former Trump 2016 presidential campaign manager Paul Manafort, who was an adviser to Yanukovych.
Van Der Zwaan, who was officially charged on Feb. 16 in a federal court in Washington, has a plea hearing scheduled for Tuesday at 2:30 p.m. EST.
(...)
The lawyer also reportedly lied about his talks with someone else, named "Person A” in the indictment.
WaPo:
In a two-page information document, prosecutors alleged that Van der Zwaan falsely told the FBI and Mueller’s office that his last communication with Gates was in mid-August 2016 in an innocuous text message and his last communication with another, unnamed person was in 2014 when Van der Zwaan discussed that person’s family.
Van der Zwaan also allegedly falsely said he did not know why a September 2016 email between him and the other person, identified in court documents only as “person A” was not produced to prosecutors.
Prosecutors alleged Van der Zwaan spoke with Gates and Person A regarding the report on Tymoshenko and recorded the calls. Van der Zwaan also allegedly “deleted and otherwise did not produce emails” sought by prosecutors and an unnamed law firm.
Read the court document
Ukrainian-linked lawyer charged with lying to feds in ongoing Russia elections meddling probe (ABC News)
Mueller charges lawyer with lying about interaction with Rick Gates (CNN)
Mueller probe's latest indictment: Alex Van Der Zwaan (Axios)
Mueller probe: London-based son-in-law of Russian businessman to plead guilty to false statements (WaPo)
Related: Skadden, Big New York Law Firm, Faces Questions on Work With Manafort (NYT September 21, 2017)