Mueller Probe: Dutch lawyer first person to be sentenced

Washington DC: A Dutch attorney has become the first person to be sentenced in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe of alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Alex van der Zwaan has been ordered to spend 30 days in prison and pay a $20,000 fine after he admitted to lying to investigators and failing to turn over emails to Mueller's team in February, reported CNN.

"What I did was wrong. I apologize to the court for my conduct. I apologize to my wife and family for the pain I have caused," he told judge.

Zwaan, 33, is a son-in-law of a prominent Russian-based banker and was also tied to former Trump deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates.

According to the reports, Zwaan was a lawyer in the London office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom from 2007 to 2017, when the firm worked with Paul Manafort during a decade when he served as a political consultant in Ukraine.

Last month Mueller's team added tax evasion and bank fraud charges against Manafort, who already faced counts of conspiracy to launder more than $30 million, making false statements, failing to follow lobbying disclosure laws and working as an unregistered foreign agent.