Former Top FBI Counterintelligence Official Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy in Violation of U.S. Sanctions

Charles McGonigal, the former top FBI counterintelligence official in New York, pleaded guilty Tuesday to a federal charge stemming from his work for a sanctioned Russian oligarch and close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

McGonigal, who was the assistant special agent in charge of counterintelligence at the FBI’s New York office, admitted to conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions by taking money from Oleg Deripaska in exchange for information on a rival.

In January, federal prosecutors in New York indicted McGonigal on five counts of violating U.S. sanctions, money laundering, conspiracy and making false statements. Prosecutors alleged he was on the payroll of Deripaska, whom he investigated in his role as the special agent in charge of the counterintelligence division in the FBI’s New York Field Office.

McGonigal told the court he received $17,500 from Deripaska, laundered from Gazprom Bank in Russia to Cyprus to a business bank account in New Jersey and then McGonigal’s private account. Deripaska, an associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin whose net worth has been estimated at more than $3 billion, was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2018.

McGonigal is the latest in a string of former high-ranking U.S. officials to be charged with violating U.S. sanctions. He is scheduled to be sentenced on August 3 and faces up to five years in prison.