Former FBI agent sentenced to four years in prison for working for Russian oligarch
A former high-ranking FBI official was sentenced to four years and two months in prison for working for Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who was under Washington sanctions, the Justice Department said Thursday. Arrested in January, Charles McGonigal, 55, who headed the counterintelligence division in the FBI's New York office before retiring in 2018, pleaded guilty in August to attempted violation of legal sanctions and money laundering for the benefit of Oleg Deripaska. He was sentenced Thursday to fifty months in prison and a $40,000 fine, the Justice Department said in a news release.
“Charles McGonigal betrayed the trust placed in him by his country by using his position at the FBI to prepare for his business future,” accused Southern District of New York attorney Damian Williams, quoted in the text “endangered national security by offering his services to Oleg Deripaska, a Russian tycoon who behaves like an agent of Vladimir Putin.” While Charles McGonigal was involved in the investigations against Russian oligarchs, including Oleg Deripaska (founder of aluminum giant Rusal), “he began to develop a relationship with a Deripaska agent in the hopes of doing business with him “once he got out of the country FBI leaves.” Ministry said. “In 2021, he attempted to provide services to him, in violation of the sanctions imposed by the United States against Deripaska in 2018,” the press release said, banning any business relationship between Americans and the latter.
In particular, he is accused of agreeing to investigate a rival Russian oligarch on his behalf and receiving secret payments in return. “McGonigal hoped to make millions of dollars through his dealings with Deripaska, but it was agents from the FBI division he led who thwarted his plan after just a few months,” asserts the Justice Department.