Washington: A former FBI informant has been charged with lying about US President Joe Biden and his son’s involvement in business dealings in Ukraine, a claim that resulted in a criminal probe into Hunter Biden.

In a statement, Special Counsel David Weiss, who is leading the probe, said a federal grand jury had indicted Alexander Smirnov, 43, on charges of making a “false statement” and “creating a false and fictitious record” in relation to an FBI probe. Smirnov faces a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison if convicted.

Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings and Hunter Biden’s role at the company have been heavily scrutinised following unproven claims from Republican former president Donald Trump and others that Democrat Joe Biden improperly tried to help his son’s business interests. The White House has denied the claims.

Smirnov was arrested on Wednesday at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, Nevada, after arriving from overseas, Weiss said. It was not immediately clear whether Smirnov had an attorney.

The indictment unsealed on Thursday (US time) appeared to deal a blow to the Republican accusations the president profited from his son’s business in Ukraine.

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Hunter Biden sat on the board of Burisma from 2014 to 2019, during part of which time his father was vice president under former president Barack Obama.

Smirnov had claimed he spoke to the owner to Burisma in 2017 about the energy’s company’s efforts to buy a US firm.

In 2020, the indictment says Smirnov made false statements recounting two meetings from 2015 or 2016 in which executives associated with Burisma told him they had hired Hunter Biden to “protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems”.