A retired FBI official was charged with working for the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska in violation of US sanctions and with taking $225,000 in cash from a former Albanian security officer.
(Bloomberg) — A retired FBI official was charged with working for the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska in violation of US sanctions and with taking $225,000 in cash from a former Albanian security officer.
Charles McGonigal, a former special agent in charge of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division in New York, was charged with money laundering and violating US sanctions against Russia, in an indictment unsealed Monday in New York. He was charged separately with falsification of records and making false statements, in a nine-count indictment unsealed in Washington.
McGonigal, 54, was arrested on Saturday at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, according to a court filing. Prosecutors claim he agreed to investigate a Russian rival of Deripaska in exchange for concealed payments.
McGonigal pleaded not guilty in Manhattan federal court Monday afternoon. He was released on a $500,000 bond. He’s scheduled to appear in a Washington court Wednesday.
As special agent in charge, McGonigal held a national security clearance and was responsible for supervising counterintelligence and national security matters. McGonigal served in the FBI from 1996 to 2018. He participated in secret investigations of Russian oligarchs, including Deripaska, according to prosecutors.
Also charged in the New York case was Sergey Shestakov, a US citizen and a former Russian diplomat, who worked in New York as a court translator, according to a statement from Manhattan US Attorney Damian Williams. Shestakov also faces an additional charge of making false statements to investigators. The government claims he lied to FBI agents in a November 2021 meeting in a Manhattan restaurant. Just after the meeting, FBI agents executed a search warrant for McGonigal’s and Shestakov’s personal electronic devices.
McGonigal, while still working as head of counterintelligence in New York, took $225,000 in cash from “an individual who had business interests in Europe and who had been an employee of a foreign intelligence service,” according to Washington US Attorney Matthew Graves. The individual was identified only as “Person A” in the Washington indictment.
Prosecutors said Person A is a US citizen who lives in New Jersey and worked for an Albanian intelligence service decades ago. McGonigal traveled outside the US with the person, who allegedly introduced him to the prime minister of Albania and a Kosovar politician. McGonigal failed to file the required reports detailing his foreign travel and contract with foreign citizens, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors say Person A handed McGonigal $80,000 in cash while seated in a car outside a Manhattan restaurant in October 2017. He gave the then-FBI official cash twice more that year, according to the government.
McGonigal retired in 2018, then worked the next year, along with Shestakov, in an unsuccessful attempt to get the sanctions against Deripaska lifted, according to the government.
McGonigal and Shestakov tried to hide Deripaska’s involvement in the scheme by not directly naming him in emails, using shell companies in written contracts and sending and receiving payments using a forged signature on a contract, according to the government.
Prosecutors said they referred to Deripaska, who had a home in Vienna, as “the individual,” “our friend from Vienna” and “the Vienna client, according to the indictment.
The case is US v. McGonigal, 23-cr-00016, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
(Updates with not guilty plea in fourth paragraph.)
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