FBI

Former FBI Agent Charged With Taking Payments From Russian Oligarch Oleg Deripaska

1/24/23
from The Wall Street Journal,
1/23/23:

Prosecutors say former counterintelligence agent Charles McGonigal accepted payments from Mr. Deripaska for work he did investigating a rival oligarch.

A former high-level FBI agent was indicted on charges he violated U.S. sanctions by accepting secret payments from Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska for work he did investigating a rival oligarch. Charles McGonigal, who retired from the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2018 after serving as special agent in charge of counterintelligence in its New York field office, was arrested Saturday at John F. Kennedy International Airport, federal prosecutors said. The arrest, which occurred alongside that of a former Russian diplomat, represents an about-turn for Mr. McGonigal, who previously supervised investigations into Mr. Deripaska and other Russian oligarchs. He also had been involved in a multiyear investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. The indictment of Mr. McGonigal is a rare such legal action against a former senior law-enforcement official. His prosecution comes as the Justice Department seeks to step up its efforts to investigate lawyers and others who assist Russian oligarchs, as part of the Biden administration’s pressure campaign against President Vladimir Putin following the invasion of Ukraine.

In a separate case filed in Washington, a federal grand jury indicted Mr. McGonigal on charges he concealed his relationship with a former employee of an Albanian intelligence agency. Prosecutors alleged that Mr. McGonigal received more than $225,000 from that individual and hid aspects of their relationship, which they said created a conflict of interest with his duties as a top FBI official.

That former Albanian intelligence officer later served as an FBI source in a criminal investigation involving foreign political lobbying that Mr. McGonigal supervised, the Justice Department said.

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