“Charles McGonigal violated the trust his country placed in him by using his high-level position at the FBI to prepare for his future in business.”
On Thursday, former high-ranking FBI official Charles McGonigal, who investigated former President Donald Trump for 'colluding' with Russia, was sentenced to 50 months in federal prison for colluding with a Russian oligarch to evade US sanctions.
The 55-year-old was ordered to surrender by Feb. 26, 2024, and will be required to also serve three years of supervision after his release and pay a $40,000 fine.
According to The New York Post, McGonigal accepted over $17,000 from Russian billionaire oligarch Oleg Deripaska, a close associate of Vladimir Putin, in exchange for information.
US Attorney Damian Williams stated, "Charles McGonigal violated the trust his country placed in him by using his high-level position at the FBI to prepare for his future in business. Once he left public service, he jeopardized our national security by providing services to Oleg Deripaska, a Russian tycoon who acts as Vladimir Putin’s agent."
McGonigal ran the FBI’s counterintelligence division in New York from 2016 to 2018. In August, he pleaded guilty to the charge of conspiring to launder money and violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which carried a maximum of five years in prison. He confessed to pulling in approximately $17,500 to help Deripaska in finding information on a rival oligarch.
Manhattan federal judge Jennifer Rearden said during sentencing that McGonigal “…knew his actions violated those sanctions. In the face of that knowledge, Mr. McGonigal forged ahead,” calling it a “great risk to national security.”
Assistant US Attorney Hagan Scotten slammed McGonigal’s actions as a “betrayal” to the country. “He was looking to turn his credentials into cash.”
After he left the bureau in 2019, McGonigal was hired by a law firm fighting Deripaska’s sanctions.
Because of his previous status as special agent in charge at the FBI, McGonigal was required to divulge his contacts with foreign officials, but according to prosecutors, he concealed them instead.
McGonigal has also been indicted by DC prosecutors for allegedly concealing having received $225,000 from a former member of Albania’s intelligence service, and entered a guilty plea to a single count of concealment of material in September, for which he is scheduled to be sentenced in February.
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