Current:Home > InvestEx-FBI counterintelligence official gets over 4 years in prison for aiding Russian oligarch -EquityExchange
Ex-FBI counterintelligence official gets over 4 years in prison for aiding Russian oligarch
View
Date:2025-04-14 22:11:05
NEW YORK (AP) — A former top FBI counterintelligence official was ordered Thursday to spend over four years in prison for violating sanctions on Russia by going to work for a Russian oligarch seeking dirt on a wealthy rival after he finished his government career.
Charles McGonigal was sentenced to four years and two months in prison in Manhattan federal court by Judge Jennifer H. Rearden, who said McGonigal harmed national security by repeatedly flouting sanctions meant to put economic pressure on Russia to get results without military force. He was also fined $40,000.
She imposed the sentence after a prosecutor cast McGonigal’s crime as a greedy money-grab that leveraged the knowledge he gained in his FBI career to cozy up to a notorious Russian oligarch, billionaire industrialist Oleg Deripaska.
Deripaska has been under U.S. sanctions since 2018 for reasons related to Russia’s occupation of Crimea.
Given a chance to speak, McGonigal told the judge in a voice that sometimes got shaky that he had a “deep sense of remorse and am sorry for my actions.”
“I recognize more than ever that I’ve 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.”
During his August plea to a single count of conspiring to launder money and violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, Deripaska told the judge he accepted over $17,000 to help Deripaska collect derogatory information about another Russian oligarch who was a business competitor.
Prosecutors say McGonigal was also trying to help Deripaska get off the sanctions list and was in negotiations along with co-conspirators to receive a fee of $650,000 to $3 million to hunt for electronic files revealing hidden assets of $500 million belonging to the oligarch’s business rival.
McGonigal, who lives in New York, was separately charged in federal court in Washington, D.C., with concealing at least $225,000 in cash he allegedly received from a former Albanian intelligence official while working for the FBI. He faces sentencing in that case on Feb. 16. Rearden ordered him to report to prison Feb. 26.
McGonigal was special agent in charge of the FBI’s counterintelligence division in New York from 2016 to 2018. He supervised investigations of Russian oligarchs, including Deripaska.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has affirmed the sanctions against Deripaska, finding there was evidence he had acted as an agent of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
veryGood! (41224)
Related
- Head of the Federal Aviation Administration to resign, allowing Trump to pick his successor
- Maternal deaths in the U.S. are staggeringly common. Personal nurses could help
- Perceiving without seeing: How light resets your internal clock
- Woman Arrested in Connection to Kim Kardashian Look-Alike Christina Ashten Gourkani's Death
- Sam Taylor
- A new kind of blood test can screen for many cancers — as some pregnant people learn
- Trump arrives in Miami for Tuesday's arraignment on federal charges
- States Vowed to Uphold America’s Climate Pledge. Are They Succeeding?
- Woman dies after Singapore family of 3 gets into accident in Taiwan
- Maternal deaths in the U.S. are staggeringly common. Personal nurses could help
Ranking
- Global Warming Set the Stage for Los Angeles Fires
- Taylor Swift and Matty Healy Spotted Holding Hands Amid Dating Rumors
- Today’s Climate: September 23, 2010
- Law requires former research chimps to be retired at a federal sanctuary, court says
- Have Dry, Sensitive Skin? You Need To Add These Gentle Skincare Products to Your Routine
- City Centers Are Sweltering. Trees Could Bring Back Some of Their Cool.
- Climate Costs Rise as Amazon, Retailers Compete on Fast Delivery
- Algae Fuel Inches Toward Price Parity with Oil
Recommendation
Former Danish minister for Greenland discusses Trump's push to acquire island
Apple iPad Flash Deal: Save $258 on a Product Bundle With Accessories
Summer House Preview: Paige DeSorbo and Craig Conover Have Their Most Confusing Fight Yet
Local Bans on Fracking Hang in the Balance in Colorado Ballot Fight
Behind on your annual reading goal? Books under 200 pages to read before 2024 ends
Bloomberg Is a Climate Leader. So Why Aren’t Activists Excited About a Run for President?
6 shot in crowded Houston parking lot after disturbance in nightclub, police say
J. Harrison Ghee, Alex Newell become first openly nonbinary Tony winners for acting