Former FBI official in N.Y. sentenced to more than four years in prison

NEW YORK – Former FBI official Charles McGonigal, who served as chief of counterintelligence in the bureau’s New York City office, on Thursday was sentenced to more than four years in prison for his illicit work for a Russian oligarch.
U.S. District Court Judge Jennifer Rearden said McGonigal’s actions put the country in jeopardy of terrible consequences. In addition to the 50-month prison sentence, which McGonigal is to begin serving Feb. 26, the judge fined McGonigal $40,000.
McGonigal’s involvement with the Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska took place over several months in 2021, three years after his 2018 retirement from the FBI, according to prosecutors.
In an August statement, McGonigal told the court he knew his investigative work benefited Deripaska and was illegal because he was being paid with money that originated in Cyprus and was filtered through local shell companies. He also participated in a plan to try to get Deripaska removed from the U.S. sanctions list, a status that prevents Deripaska from doing business with U.S. banks and entities.
McGonigal’s employment in 2019 by a law firm trying to reverse Deripaska’s sanctions was considered legal under U.S. law but subsequent assignments on behalf of Deripaska were not, which McGonigal admitted in court.
“If nations such as Russia can avoid and influence these sanctions through conduct like (McGonigal’s) then the sanctions would be ineffective, increasing the chance of war,” Rearden said Thursday before handing down the sentence.
McGonigal, when given a chance to speak, fought to keep his composure and expressed remorse for his conduct.
“I recognize more than ever that I betrayed the confidence and trust of those close to me,” he said. “For the rest of my life I will be fighting to regain that trust and becoming a better person.”
His lawyers sought a sentence that would not include serving time in prison, citing years of public service for the United States. McGonigal was part of the cleanup effort at Ground Zero after Sept. 11 and he helped to prevent a terrorist attack on a New York City subway, they said.
Manhattan Assistant U.S. Attorney Hagan Scotten said in court that McGonigal was driven by greed, using his position, before the end of his FBI career to make international contacts who could set him up for lucrative work upon his retirement from the bureau.
“He was not content to serve only the country that trusted him with one of the most important counter-espionage jobs,” Scotten argued.
In August, McGonigal pleaded guilty to conspiring to violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and money laundering. The laundering count relates to his efforts in 2021 to remove Deripaska from the U.S. sanctions list.
He was charged separately in Washington, where he was accused of hiding $225,000 that he received from a former Albanian intelligence agent.
He also pleaded guilty in that case and is scheduled for sentencing Feb. 16.
McGonigal’s federal indictments in January surprised the law enforcement and intelligence communities. He was highly-regarded in his career and rose in the ranks to a revered leadership role in New York’s FBI field office. Because of his ties to that office, FBI agents from other cities handled the investigation of his suspected wrongdoing.
McGonigal worked at the FBI in New York for 22 years. His responsibilities through the years included heading the counterintelligence division tasked with investigating foreign spies.
Deripaska, a known ally to Russian president Vladimir Putin, is under federal indictment in New York for sanctions evasion and obstruction of justice. He has been on the sanctions list since April 2018 but his indictment in September 2022 was part of an effort by the U.S. government to curtail the economic pursuits of wealthy Putin associates.
Deripaska has not been apprehended.