EX-FBI OFFICIAL PLEADS GUILTY TO ASSISTING RUSSIAN OLIGARCH
He had been tasked with investigating sanctioned figure
Former high-ranking FBI official Charles McGonigal pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court to conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions and to laundering money by secretly working on behalf of a Russian oligarch he had been tasked with investigating.
The former chief of counterintelligence in the FBI’s New York City office, who was charged in January, settled his New York case with federal prosecutors by pleading guilty to one count in a superseding document used to override or avoid a criminal indictment and streamline plea agreements. He faces up to five years in prison and is to be sentenced Dec. 14.
McGonigal, 55, still has pending federal charges in Washington for allegedly taking $225,000 in bribes while working for the bureau on sensitive investigations. His attorney recently said there were plea discussions with prosecutors there. A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney in Washington declined to comment.
McGonigal’s involvement with the Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska that is covered by his guilty plea took place over several months in 2021, three years after his 2018 retirement from the FBI, according to prosecutors.
In a statement Tuesday to U.S. District Judge Jennifer H. Rearden, McGonigal said 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 shell companies. His involvement with Deripaska included participation in a plan to try to get Deripaska removed from the U.S. sanctions list.
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.
“I understood what my actions have resulted in, and I am deeply remorseful for it,” McGonigal said. “I appear before you in this court to take full responsibility as my actions never intended to hurt the United States, the FBI and my family and friends.”
He admitted to receiving $17,500 from Deripaska, who was added to the U.S. government’s sanctions list in 2018 on suspicion that he committed several illegal acts including extortion and racketeering. Deripaska gained renewed international significance last year because of his ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin and the U.S. government’s opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Rebecca Dell said McGonigal was in negotiations to find what was expected to be $500 million of hidden assets belonging to a Deripaska rival in exchange for a payment of up to $3 million.