Alex Rolf van der Zwaan (; born September 1984) is a Belgian-born Dutch attorney formerly with the London branch of New York-based international law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.
On 20 February 2018, he pleaded guilty to one count of making a false statement to investigators while answering questions about
Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections
The Russian government interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election with the goals of harming the campaign of Hillary Clinton, boosting the candidacy of Donald Trump, and increasing political and social discord in the United States. Acc ...
. He served 30 days in prison and was fined $20,000. After serving his sentence, Van der Zwaan was deported to the Netherlands. He was later pardoned in December 2020 by
U.S. President
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Justice was his firm's client and central to the indictment. In 2017, Skadden Arps refunded $567,000 billed by the firm to the Government of Ukraine.
Education and career
Van der Zwaan, a
Dutch citizen
Dutch nationality law details the conditions by which a person holds Dutch nationality. The primary law governing these requirements is the Dutch Nationality Act, which came into force on 1 January 1985. Regulations apply to the entire Kingdom o ...
, was born in
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
King's College London
King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...
BPP Law School
BPP University Law School is a private, for-profit provider of professional and academic legal education in the United Kingdom and one of the founding schools of BPP University.
History
BPP Law School has degree awarding powers through its pare ...
in 2007. He was admitted to practice law as a
solicitor
A solicitor is a legal practitioner who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally-defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and ...
in
England and Wales
England and Wales () is one of the three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. The substantive law of the jurisdiction is Eng ...
in September 2009.
He began working at the London office of the international law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in 2007. At the firm, he worked on complex matters, including the freezing of assets of the rich, a legal tactic attempted by companies and billionaires in disputes with business partners. He repeatedly assisted Ukrainian oligarch
Gennadiy Bogolyubov
Gennadiy (Zvi Hirsch) Bogolyubov (born 1961/1962) is a Ukrainian billionaire businessman based in the United Kingdom. He controls Privat Group, along with Ihor Kolomoyskyi and Oleksiy Martynov.
Early life
Gennadiy Bogolyubov is a native of Dnipro ...
, whose assets were at risk of being frozen by the
London High Court
The High Court of Justice in London, known properly as His Majesty's High Court of Justice in England, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, are the Senior Courts of England and Wales. Its name is abbreviated as EWHC (England ...
on several occasions.
His work at the firm also included representing corporations, individuals and sovereign entities in various matters, including high-value and complex commercial litigation and arbitration, and government agency investigations. He assisted Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich's businesses in relation to mining assets in Ukraine.
In November 2017, Van der Zwaan was fired from Skadden Arps for
gross misconduct
''Gross Misconduct'' is the second album from crossover thrash metal band, M.O.D. It was released in 1989 on Megaforce Records and Noise International and follows 1988's extended play '' Surfin' M.O.D.'' It was three years until the band releas ...
due to the false statements he made to the United States Special Counsel's Office. On 3 July 2019, Van der Zwaan was
struck off
The General Medical Council (GMC) is a public body that maintains the official register of medical practitioners within the United Kingdom. Its chief responsibility is to "protect, promote and maintain the health and safety of the public" by c ...
the Roll of Solicitors in England and Wales following a judgment of the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal that he had acted dishonestly by knowingly and intentionally giving the Special Counsel's Office false information.
Work on Skadden Arps' Ukrainian report, and criminal conviction
Van der Zwaan, who speaks Russian, was one of the eight attorneys who worked on Skadden Arps's 2012 report, commissioned by the government of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych via
Paul Manafort
Paul John Manafort Jr. (; born April 1, 1949) is an American lobbyist, political consultant, and attorney. A long-time Republican Party campaign consultant, he chaired the Trump presidential campaign from June to August 2016. Manafort served ...
, that defended the prosecution, conviction and imprisonment of Yanukovych's rival, the country's former prime minister
Yulia Tymoshenko
Yulia Volodymyrivna Tymoshenko ( uk, Юлія Володимирівна Тимошенко, ; Hrihyan (); Van der Zwaan worked closely with
Gregory B. Craig
Gregory Bestor Craig (born March 4, 1945) is an American lawyer and former White House Counsel under President Barack Obama, from 2009 to 2010. A former attorney at the Washington, D.C. law firm of Williams & Connolly, Craig has represented nume ...
in preparing the report, assisting with fact-finding and attending meetings in Ukraine. He also served as rule-of-law consultant to the
Ministry of Justice of Ukraine
The Ministry of Justice of Ukraine ( uk, Міністерство юстиції України) is the main body in the system of central government of Ukraine that regulates state legal policy. It is often abbreviated as "Мinjust" f Ukraine It ...
. In a 2017 interview former United States ambassador to Ukraine
John E. Herbst
John Edward Herbst (born August 12, 1952) is a retired American diplomat who was the United States Ambassador to Uzbekistan from 2000 to 2003 and United States Ambassador to Ukraine from September 2003 to May 2006.
Education
Herbst received ...
said that
Skadden Arps
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates is an American multinational law firm headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1948, the firm consistently ranks among the top U.S. law firms by revenue. The company is known for its wo ...
"should have been ashamed" of the report, calling it "a nasty piece of work".
In February 2018,
Special Counsel investigation
In the United States, a special counsel (formerly called special prosecutor or independent counsel) is a lawyer appointed to Criminal investigation, investigate, and potentially prosecution, prosecute, a particular case of suspected wrongdoing fo ...
prosecutor
Andrew Weissmann
Andrew A. Weissmann (born March 17, 1958) is an American attorney. He was an Assistant United States Attorney from 1991 to 2002, where he prosecuted high-profile organized crime cases.
In 2002, President George W. Bush appointed Weissman to be ...
stated that, as part of Manafort's and Rick Gates's lobbying effort to improve Yanukovych's reputation in the United States, Van der Zwaan took an advance copy of the report in late July or early August 2012 without authorization, and gave it to a public-relations firm working for the Ukrainian Ministry of Justice—with one aim being to get the report published in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''—and in September 2012 gave Gates talking points about the report. Prosecutors also said Van der Zwaan deleted emails sought by the special counsel's office—such as emails between him and Manafort associate
Konstantin Kilimnik
uk, Костянтин Килимник
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Kryvyi Rih, Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, Soviet Union
, death_date =
, death_place =
, citizenship = UkraineRussiaSoviet Union
, oc ...
(known as "Person A"), including one requesting that Van der Zwaan use encrypted communications and one from September 2016—rather than turning them over to Skadden Arps, which was gathering documents for the special counsel.
In a 3 November 2017 interview with Special Counsel prosecutors and
FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...
agents, Van der Zwaan maintained that his last communication with Gates was an innocuous text in mid-August 2016 and that his last contact with Kilimnik was a 2014 discussion of the latter's family; prosecutors determined instead that he had discussed the 2012 Skadden Arps report with Gates and Kilimnik in September 2016 during phone calls that he surreptitiously recorded. Van der Zwaan acknowledged to Special Counsel investigators in an interview that Gates had told him of Kilimnik's ties to the
Main Intelligence Directorate Main Intelligence Directorate may refer to:
* Main Directorate of Intelligence (Ukraine), the military intelligence service of Ukraine
* GRU
The Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, rus, Гла́ ...
(GRU), a Russian military intelligence agency.
On 20 February 2018, Van der Zwaan pleaded guilty to one count of making a false statement to investigators. In his plea, he admitted to email deletions, and to lying when he told investigators that he had only a "passive role in the rollout of the report". The guilty plea did not include an agreement to cooperate with the Mueller investigation.
At his sentencing hearing on 3 April 2018, he was sentenced to 30 days in prison followed by two months of supervised release, and fined $20,000.
He was
disbarred
Disbarment, also known as striking off, is the removal of a lawyer from a bar association or the practice of law, thus revoking their law license or admission to practice law. Disbarment is usually a punishment for unethical or criminal conduct ...
by the United Kingdom's Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal on 11 July 2019.
In December 2020, U.S. President
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
pardoned Van der Zwaan in an eleventh-hour pardon prior to the end of Trump's four-year presidential term. The pardon rescinds his U.S. criminal record, allowing him to legally return to the United States.
Personal life
, Van der Zwaan lives in London. In June 2017, he married Eva Khan, daughter of the Russian billionaire
German Khan
German Borisovich Khan (russian: Герман Борисович Хан; born 24 October 1961) is a Ukrainian-Russian oligarch, billionaire, and businessman. After graduating from university in 1988 he worked in a wholesale business selling c ...
, co-founder and co-owner of Alfa Group. German Khan is suing ''
BuzzFeed
BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John S. Johnson III to focus on tracking viral content. Ken ...
'' and the private investigation firm
Fusion GPS
Fusion GPS is a commercial research and strategic intelligence firm based in Washington, D.C. The company conducts open-source investigations and provides research and strategic advice for businesses, law firms and investors, as well as for ...
over ''BuzzFeed's'' publication of the Steele dossier containing information about Trump's ties to Russia. Van der Zwaan has Russian roots and has worked with a number of Russian oligarchs. In addition to Dutch, he speaks fluent English, Russian, and French.