Story highlights Prince informed the House Intelligence Committee that he met in the Seychelles with Kirill Dmitriev

Dmitriev is the chief executive of the state-run Russian Direct Investment Fund

Washington (CNN) Blackwater founder Erik Prince testified to House lawmakers that he met the head of a Russian investment fund earlier this year -- but he insisted it was not part of an effort to set up a Russian backchannel with the Trump administration, multiple sources told CNN.

In private testimony Thursday, Prince informed the House Intelligence Committee that he met in the Seychelles with Kirill Dmitriev, who is the chief executive of the state-run Russian Direct Investment Fund, at the request of the United Arab Emirates to discuss business opportunities. The meeting on the island in the Indian Ocean, he said, lasted roughly 20 minutes after dinner over a beer.

Prince insisted he did not have the meeting at the request of the Trump administration, according to multiple sources with direct knowledge of the situation.

Prince has come under scrutiny after it was reported that the January meeting was an apparent effort to set up a backchannel Russian communication with the Trump administration, and that senior Trump officials had authorized the meeting.

But Prince downplayed his ties to the Trump's team, merely saying he was a Trump donor and had met the President on only one occasion, the sources said. CNN has previously reported that Prince met with members of Trump's incoming national security team during the presidential transition, and that he boasted about his influence in the Trump orbit around that same time.