Ex-FBI agent Charles McGonigal has been sentenced to over four years in prison for the money laundering scheme he had with a Russian oligarch while allegedly accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars from a foreign national. McGonigal’s charges were announced in January. He was the top counterintelligence agent in the bureau’s New York office. Here’s what NBC News reported at the time of his arrest last winter:
Federal prosecutors say the former head of counterintelligence for the FBI’s New York office laundered money, violated sanctions against Russia while working with a Russian oligarch and while still at the FBI took hundreds of thousands of dollars from a foreign national and former foreign intelligence official.
Charles McGonigal, 55, was arrested on Saturday after arriving at JFK airport in New York on a flight from the Middle East.
A case filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., alleges that while serving as Special Agent in Charge of FBI counterintelligence efforts in the New York office, McGonigal took $225,000 in cash from an individual with business interests in Europe who had been an employee of a foreign intelligence service.
From August 2017 through his retirement in September 2018, McGonigal allegedly concealed his relationship with this former foreign security officer from the FBI. He allegedly requested and received cash from the individual and traveled abroad with the individual.
[…]
Federal prosecutors in New York allege that after his 2018 retirement from the FBI, McGonigal worked with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, Deripaska associate Sergey Shestakov, and a third person to investigate a rival Russian oligarch in return for payments from Deripaska.
According to prosecutors, McGonigal, Shestakov and the third person tried to conceal Deripaska’s involvement through shell companies, forged signatures and other means.
U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams said, “As alleged, Charles McGonigal, a former high-level FBI official, and Sergey Shestakov, a Court interpreter, violated U.S. sanctions by agreeing to provide services to Oleg Deripaska, a sanctioned Russian oligarch. They both previously worked with Deripaska to attempt to have his sanctions removed, and, as public servants, they should have known better.”
Recommended
JUST IN: Former FBI official Charles McGonigal, who helped investigate Trump for 'colluding' with Russia, has been sentenced to four years in prison for colluding with Russia.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) December 15, 2023
Read that again.
McGonigal accepted over $17,000 from Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska who he supplied… pic.twitter.com/Py9J2AmBrm
McGonigal pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges and hoped to stay out of prison. The judge opted to make an example out of him (via ABC News):
Charles McGonigal, a former counterintelligence leader in the FBI's New York field office, pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge. McGonigal's lawyers had asked for no prison time, but the judge came down harshly on the former FBI bigwig.
"I committed a felony and as a former FBI special agent it causes me extreme emotional and physical pain," McGonigal told the judge prior to the imposition of the sentence. "I stand before you today with a deep sense of remorse."
Judge Jennifer Rearden paid tribute to McGonigal's "extraordinary contributions" to counterespionage operations on the country's behalf, but noted the "extraordinary seriousness" of his choosing to work for Oleg Deripaska, whom the U.S. sanctioned for enabling Russia's annexation of Crimea.
"Mr. McGongial well knew his actions violated those sanctions," Rearden said before she imposed the 50-month sentence.
The publication added that he must turn himself in on February 26 to begin his prison sentence. So, someone from the DOJ is going to jail for colluding with the Russians, though it was an unrelated investigation.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member