Former FBI agent is accused of aiding Russian oligarch
A former high-ranking FBI counterintelligence agent who investigated Russian oligarchs has been indicted on charges that he secretly worked for one in violation of U.S. sanctions. Charles McGonigal was also charged, in a separate indictment, with taking cash from a former foreign security officer.
McGonigal, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s counterintelligence division in New York from 2016 to 2018, is accused in an indictment unsealed Monday of working with a formerSoviet-diplomat-turnedinterpreter on behalf of Oleg Deripaska, a Russian billionaire they purportedly referred to in code as “the big guy” and “the client.”
McGonigal, who had participated in investigations of Russian oligarchs, including Deripaska, worked to have Deripaska’s sanctions lifted in 2019 and took money from him in 2021 to investigate a rival oligarch, the Justice Department said.
The indictment comes as the FBI is entangled in separate, politically charged investigations — the handling of classified documents by President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump — and as Republicans in Congress pledge to investigate high-profile FBI and Justice Department decisions.
McGonigal and the interpreter, Sergey Shestakov, were arrested Saturday — McGonigal after landing at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York and Shestakov at his home in Morris, Connecticut — and held at a federal jail in Brooklyn. They both pleaded not guilty Monday and were released on bail.
McGonigal, 54, and Shestakov, 69, are charged with violating and conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers
Act, conspiring to commit money laundering and money laundering. Shestakov is also charged with making material misstatements to the FBI.
McGonigal “has had a long, distinguished career with the FBI,” his lawyer, Seth DuCharme, told reporters when he left court with McGonigal following his arraignment.
“This is obviously a distressing day for Mr. McGonigal and his family, but we’ll review the evidence, we’ll closely scrutinize it and we have a lot of confidence in Mr. McGonigal,” said DuCharme, the former top federal prosecutor in Brooklyn. Messages seeking comments were left for lawyers for Shestakov and Deripaska.
McGonigal was separately charged in federal court in Washington, D.C. with concealing at least $225,000 in cash that he allegedly received from a former Albanian intelligence official while working for the FBI.