HUMINT Retired FBI Executive Charged with Concealing $225,000 in Cash Received from Former Intelligence Officer

[Bogeyman]

Charles F. McGonigal Arrested in New York
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Charles F. McGonigal, 54, a former FBI Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Office, has been arrested on charges relating to his receipt of $225,000 in cash from an individual who had business interests in Europe and who had been an employee of a foreign intelligence service, while McGonigal was serving as Special Agent in Charge of FBI counterintelligence efforts in the New York Office. McGonigal retired from the FBI in September of 2018.
According to the nine-count indictment, unsealed today, from August 2017 and continuing through and beyond his retirement from the FBI in September 2018, McGonigal concealed from the FBI the nature of his relationship with a former foreign security officer and businessperson who had ongoing business interests in foreign countries and before foreign governments. Specifically, McGonigal requested and received at least $225,000 in cash from the individual and traveled abroad with the individual and met with foreign nationals. The individual later served as an FBI source in a criminal investigation involving foreign political lobbying over which McGonigal had official supervisory responsibility. McGonigal is accused of engaging in other conduct in his official capacity as an FBI Special Agent in Charge that he believed would benefit the businessperson financially.
McGonigal’s initial appearance in the District of Columbia has not yet been scheduled.
McGonigal is charged with concealing material facts and with six counts of making false statements, each of which carries a maximum penalty of five years of imprisonment. McGonigal is also charged with two counts of falsification of records and documents, each of which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years of imprisonment.
Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves for the District of Columbia, Assistant Director in Charge Donald Alway of the FBI Los Angeles Field Office and Assistant Director in Charge David Sundberg of the FBI Washington Field Office made the announcement.
The FBI Los Angeles Field Office is investigating the case, with significant assistance provided by the FBI Washington Field Office.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Elizabeth Aloi and Michael Friedman for the District of Columbia and Acting Deputy Chief Evan Turgeon of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section are prosecuting the case, with assistance from the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs.

Retired FBI Executive Charged with Concealing $225,000 in Cash Received from Former Intelligence Officer

Charles F. McGonigal, 54, a former FBI Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Office, has been arrested on charges relating to his receipt of $225,000 in cash from an individual who had business interests in Europe and who had been an employee of a foreign intelligence service, while...

www.justice.gov

 

[Bogeyman]

Former FBI agent charged with violating sanctions by working for Oleg Deripaska​

A former high-ranking FBI agent has been charged with violating US sanctions and engaging in money laundering by working for Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska and helping him investigate a rival. Charles McGonigal, who previously served as special agent in charge of counter-intelligence at the FBI’s New York office and who had investigated Deripaska during his time in the agency, was arrested on Saturday evening, the Department of Justice said on Monday.

Deripaska, who made his fortune in metals, was first sanctioned by the US in 2018, in response to Russia’s earlier annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula. Washington has imposed sanctions and visa restrictions on a number of other business executives following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine a little less than a year ago, as part of its efforts to punish Moscow and limit its financial ties to the rest of the world.

Deripaska is one of the few oligarchs to have spoken out against Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, which he has called “madness” and a “colossal mistake” even while avoiding direct criticism of the Russian president. But his clashes with the Kremlin over the war have done little to mend his longstanding and hostile relationship with western authorities.

“Russian oligarchs like Oleg Deripaska perform global malign influence on behalf of the Kremlin and are associated with acts of bribery, extortion, and violence,” Michael Driscoll, the FBI’s assistant director in charge, said. A representative for Deripaska did not immediately respond to a request for comment. McGonigal, who retired from the FBI in 2018 after 22 years at the agency, agreed in 2021 to “investigate a rival Russian oligarch in return for concealed payments from Deripaska”, the DoJ alleged on Monday.

The 54-year-old worked for the sanctioned oligarch both via a law firm and directly, prosecutors said, and was paid tens of thousands of dollars for his services, they alleged. While still working as an FBI agent, McGonigal also agreed to help the daughter of a suspected Russian intelligence officer land an internship at the New York Police Department, prosecutors added.

Sergey Shestakov, a 69-year-old former Russian diplomat turned US citizen, was charged alongside McGonigal for helping Deripaska. The duo attempted to get the sanctions against the oligarch lifted in 2019, prosecutors said. Shestakov, who was a New York-based diplomat for both Soviet and post-Soviet Russia, had remained in the US to work as a Russian interpreter in federal courts.

“They both previously worked with Deripaska to attempt to have his sanctions removed, and, as public servants, they should have known better,” Damian Williams, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, said.


If convicted, McGonigal could face a maximum of 80 years in prison, while Shestakov could face 85 years. Lawyers for McGonigal and Shestakov did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

McGonigal was separately charged by the DoJ for allegedly accepting $225,000 in cash while employed by the FBI from an Albanian-born individual who had business interests in Europe and who had been an employee of his native country’s foreign intelligence service.

US authorities charged Deripaska and his associates in September with violating sanctions, while Ekaterina Voronina, Deripaska’s girlfriend, was charged with making false statements to US authorities as she attempted to enter the country to give birth to the couple’s child.

Graham Bonham-Carter, a British businessman who worked for Deripaska, was arrested in London the following month, after being charged by US authorities for allegedly assisting his boss in evading sanctions. Deripaska faces separate legal proceedings in the UK, where he is being accused of being in contempt of court.

Former FBI agent charged with violating sanctions by working for Oleg Deripaska | Financial Times

US alleges he also assisted Russian oligarch by helping to investigate a rival

www.ft.com