The FBI was investigating a plot involving Russian kickbacks and bribes before the Obama administration gave a green light to a Moscow-controlled company gaining control of U.S. uranium production, it was reported Tuesday.

The deal, which won agency approval in 2010, allowed Rosatom, the Russian atomic energy agency, gain control of U.S. uranium stockpiles.

The State Department, then run by Hillary Clinton, and a special committee were required to sign off on the deal, since it led to Russia gaining control of one-fifth of U.S. uranium supplies and production.

As far back as 2009, the FBI was probing bribes in the Russian nuclear industry, the Hill reported.

Hillary Clinton's State Department and a committee on foreign investment allowed a Moscow-controlled firm to gain control of a Canadian firm that controlled U.S. uranium production

According to the report, a confidential cooperating witness helped gather documents and secret recordings that established Moscow had 'compromised' a U.S. trucking firm.

An eyewitness and other documentation indicate Russian nuclear officials steered millions to the U.S. that were 'designed to benefit' the Clinton Foundation then being overseen by former President Bill Clinton, according to the report.

Hillary Clinton also sat on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which signed off on the deal.

'The Russians were compromising American contractors in the nuclear industry with kickbacks and extortion threats, all of which raised legitimate national security concerns. And none of that evidence got aired before the Obama administration made those decisions,' a person who worked the case told the paper.

The New York Times reported about contributions linked to the deal flowing to the Clinton Foundation in 2015

The uranium story played a role in the 2016. 'Clinton Cash' author Peter Schweizer wrote about it, and the New York Times wrote a story about contributions flowing to the Clinton Foundation from players in the deal in 2015.

The chair of Uranium One used a family foundation to make four donations to the Clinton foundation totaling $2.35 million, the paper reported at the time.

President Trump referenced it at his campaign rallies.

Former attorney general Eric Holder also sat on the CFIUS that green lighted the deal, but officials said they didn't know whether the FBI or the Justice Department told committee members about the bribe scheme that got uncovered.

A 2014 indictment charged that Vadim Mikerin,who oversaw Russians' nuclear energy expansion, engaged in bribes and kickbacks.

The DOJ was investigating the scheme at the time the deal went through and didn't bring charges immediately. In fact, the probe went on for four years.

According to a subsequent indictment – from 2014, after the deal went through – Vadim Mikerin,who oversaw Russians' nuclear energy expansion, engaged in bribes and kickbacks.

Between 2009 and 2012, Mikerin 'did knowingly and willfully combine, conspire confederate and agree with other persons … to obstruct, delay and affect commerce and the movement of an article and commodity (enriched uranium) in commerce by extortion,' according to the indictment.

An Energy Department agent provided affadavits stating Mikerin oversaw a 'racketeering scheme.'

The ultimate overseer of the probe was then-U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein. He is now the acting attorney general overseeing special counsel Robert Mueller's probe of Russian interference in the U.S. election. Also overseeing it was then-Assistant FBI Director Andrew McCabe, according to Justice Department documents cited in the story.

Mikerin was arrested and charged in 2014. In 2015, the Justice Department announced that he was sentenced to 48 months in prison and ordered to forfeit more than $2.1 million.