A California man who prosecutors alleged lied to federal agents and made false criminal allegations against President Biden and his son Hunter now faces new tax evasion charges from special counsel David Weiss, court records show.

Alexander Smirnov was an FBI informant for about a decade, providing information to federal investigators about what his lawyers said in court documents showed an “unalloyed, long-standing loyalty to the United States.”

But Weiss — the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney from Delaware who was retained during the Biden administration and later elevated to the role of special counsel by Attorney General Merrick Garland to pursue Hunter Biden’s investigations — alleged in a complaint from February 2024 that Smirnov had illegally made false statements. claims against FBI handlers about Hunter and Mr. Biden dating back to 2020.

Smirnov was accused of lying to investigators when he told them that the two Bidens had taken $5 million each from Ukrainian energy company Burisma. The claims “were false, as defendant knew,” according to the charging documents filed against him.

Smirnov, who according to court records was born in Ukraine, pleaded not guilty to the charges and in court filings his defense team has accused prosecutors of charging their client “as a result of the rejection of Hunter Biden’s plea resolutions.” He remains in pre-trial detention awaiting trial.

On November 21, just weeks before he was scheduled to appear in court on December 3, federal prosecutors in Weiss’ office filed a low-profile indictment in a separate case against Smirnov, alleging that he illegally obtained millions of dollars for the IRS had hidden. income between 2020 and 2022.

According to court records, Smirnov spent unreported income on a Las Vegas apartment, a Bentley and payments on credit card debt. Prosecutors did not name the alleged source of the funds, but the dates and amounts of his payments to him from a single company identified in their filing as “Company 1” coincide with payments Smirnov claimed to have received from the Economic Transformation Technologies Corporation, which was named in court documents filed in Smirnov’s other case. The new charges do not indicate any wrongdoing by Economic Transformation Technologies Corporation. Other income came from an unnamed individual, the new indictment said.

“To conceal the millions of dollars in income he received in 2020, 2021 and 2022, Defendant prepared and filed for himself and on behalf of the domestic partner false Forms 1040, U.S. Individual Income Tax Returns, which included false and fictitious income and expenses included. ” according to the 27-page indictment filed last week.

According to newly released court records, the judge who oversaw Weiss’ first case against Smirnov — District Court Judge Otis Wright — held a status conference Tuesday and postponed his upcoming trial on the false statements until January.

In response to the new tax charge, Smirnov’s attorney, David Chesnoff, told CBS News, “Mr. Smirnov intends to vigorously defend this case, just as he vigorously defended the first case.”

A spokesperson for Weiss declined to comment when contacted by CBS News.

Prosecutors alleged earlier this year that Smirnov’s false claims against the Bidens were memorialized in an FBI document known as an FD 1023. Republicans in Congress previously pointed to the bribery allegations in that document as evidence of wrongdoing and fought with the FBI to publicly release the document. investigators now say it contained false allegations.

Smirnov’s lawyers have argued in court records that the case “smacks of political bias.” But prosecutors have pushed back, writing this month that Smirnov “has never provided any discovery to the government, or evidence to this Court in support of his baseless claims — in fact, there is no such evidence because the claims are meritless.”

In court documents filed earlier this year, the special counsel said Smirnov had told the FBI about contacts with foreign intelligence officials, “including Russian intelligence services, and that he has recently had such contacts.” Defense lawyers in their own lawsuits called the allegations of Russian ties unfounded.

Beyond the specific charges in question, law enforcement experts told CBS News earlier this year that mounting questions about Smirnov’s veracity should lead to an investigation of every case involving him. A CBS News investigation published earlier this year, revealed that serious doubts about Smirnov’s credibility had been raised almost a decade ago.

The FBI declined to comment on the results of the CBS News investigation earlier this year.

Weiss secured a conviction against Hunter Biden in Delaware illegal weapons charges and a guilty plea from the president’s son in a second California case in which Hunter Biden admitted tax fraud. He will be sentenced in both cases later this month.

The conviction and guilty plea were the result of a lengthy legal battle between Weiss’ office and Hunter Biden’s legal team after an initial plea and diversion agreement fell apart and was ultimately dismissed by a federal judge in 2023.

The special counsel has faced criticism from members of Congress and whistleblowers over his handling of the Hunter Biden investigation.

Jessica Kegu and Pat Milton contributed to this report.