Former FBI agent Charles McGonigal arrives for a change of plea hearing at Manhattan Federal Court on August 15, 2023 in Recent York City. McGonigal is predicted to alter his plea to guilty after initially pleading not guilty. He was arrested on January 21 for allegedly violating and conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and other charges referring to money laundering.
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A former high-ranking FBI counterintelligence official pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiring to violate sanctions on Russia by going to work, after he retired, for an oligarch he once investigated.
Appearing before a federal judge in Recent York City, Charles McGonigal, 55, said he was “deeply remorseful” for work he did in 2021 for the billionaire industrialist Oleg Deripaska.
McGonigal told the judge he accepted over $17,000 to assist Deripaska collect derogatory details about one other Russian oligarch who was a business competitor. Deripaska has been under U.S. sanctions since 2018 for reasons related to Russia’s occupation of Crimea.
McGonigal was also attempting to help Deripaska get off the sanctions list, Assistant U.S. Attorney Rebecca Dell said, and was in negotiations together with co-conspirators to receive a fee of $650,000 to $3 million to hunt for electronic files revealing hidden assets of $500 million belonging to the oligarch’s business rival.
McGonigal pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiring to launder money and violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. He could withstand five years in prison. Judge Jennifer H. Rearden scheduled his sentencing for Dec. 14.
McGonigal, who lives in Recent York, is individually charged in federal court in Washington, D.C. with concealing a minimum of $225,000 in money he allegedly received from a former Albanian intelligence official while working for the FBI.
McGonigal was special agent in control of the FBI’s counterintelligence division in Recent York from 2016 to 2018. He supervised investigations of Russian oligarchs, including Deripaska.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia later affirmed the sanctions against Deripaska, finding there was evidence he had acted as an agent of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
McGonigal, who became choked up at one point as he described his crime, said Deripaska funneled the $17,500 payment he received through a bank in Cypress and a company in Recent Jersey before it was transferred into his checking account.
“This, as you may imagine, has been a painful process not just for me, but for my friends, family and family members,” McGonigal said. “I take full responsibility as my actions were never intended to harm the US, the FBI and my family and friends.”
In a release, Matthew G. Olsen, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, said, “McGonigal, by his own admission, betrayed his oath and actively concealed his illicit work on the bidding of a sanctioned Russian oligarch.”
“Today’s plea shows the Department of Justice’s resolve to pursue and dismantle the illegal networks that Russian oligarchs use to try to flee the reach of our sanctions and evade our laws,” he added.
