Former FBI Official Sentenced for Accepting Secret Payments from Russian Oligarch
Washington — Charles McGonigal, the former top counterintelligence official at the FBI's New York office, is set to be sentenced Thursday afternoon for accepting secret payments from a sanctioned Russian oligarch and close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
McGonigal pleaded guilty to a federal charge in New York in August to conspiring to violate a law known as the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. He admitted to helping Oleg Deripaska dig up dirt on a rival Russian oligarch and laundering money by concealing the source of the payments for that work. He has also been charged and pleaded guilty in a separate case in Washington.
The Justice Department is seeking a five-year sentence and $200,000 fine for the charge in the New York case, saying McGonigal "betrayed his country and manipulated a sanctions regime vital to its national security." Such a sentence would be a warning to other former national security officials who may consider "abusing their positions in the service of hostile foreign actors," the government wrote in a sentencing submission last week.
"It is not an overstatement to say that no one knew better the gravity of McGonigal's crimes than McGonigal himself," it said.
According to McGonigal's lawyers, his work for Deripaska in order to sanction another Russian oligarch was "at least in part aligned with U.S. interests."
His attorneys have requested the federal judge overseeing the case to impose a sentence without additional prison time. They argue that he "understood that the work he agreed to do was consistent with, not in tension with, U.S. foreign policy in the sense that it was in furtherance of potentially sanctioning another Russian oligarch."
Background of McGonigal
McGonigal had a career of over two decades at the FBI, where he rose through the ranks to become its counterintelligence chief in New York before retiring in 2018. He worked on high-profile national security cases, including foiling a plot to bomb the New York City subway and dealing with WikiLeaks' release of classified documents.
"Mr. McGonigal's service to the United States has been truly extraordinary, and often at great personal risk," stated his lawyers in their sentencing submission last month.
Prior to his retirement from the bureau, McGonigal was introduced to an agent of Deripaska by a former Russian diplomat, who later became a U.S. citizen and interpreter for courts and government offices in New York City, as per the Justice Department.
A former FBI agent, Brian McGonigal, has been sentenced to 5 years in prison for his involvement in a scheme to help a Russian oligarch, Oleg Deripaska, evade U.S. sanctions. McGonigal, who pleaded guilty in September, admitted to concealing his contacts with foreign officials and accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars from a former employee of Albania's intelligence agency. Prosecutors said McGonigal knew about Deripaska's association with a Russian intelligence agency but continued a relationship with him. He later connected Deripaska with a law firm to help him get off the U.S. sanctions list and was hired by Deripaska to investigate a rival oligarch. The scheme was effectively ended when the FBI seized McGonigal's phone in November 2021. McGonigal's sentencing in the Washington case is scheduled for Feb. 16.
In a statement, McGonigal expressed remorse for his actions and stated that he has "suffered significantly" as a result.
Apology for Loss of Credibility in Law Enforcement and Security Community
"I have lost credibility with many in the law enforcement and security community with the embarrassment I have caused, and I am truly sorry for this," he said.
McGonigal's wife, Pamela, told the judge in a statement that her husband's "ambition led him astray and caused him to lose focus on the reality of his decision making and actions."
