Former FBI official who violated Russia sanctions is sent to prison

A federal judge in Manhattan on Thursday sentenced Charles McGonigal to just over four years in prison. Prosecutors said he received money to help a Russian oligarch uncover damaging information about a rival oligarch. In August, McGonigal pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate international sanctions and commit money laundering by agreeing to work for Oleg Deripaska in 2021. The United States government in 2018 sanctioned Deripaska for acting as an agent of Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

What is McGonigal’s background? He worked for the FBI for over two decades, leading the counterintelligence division of the agency’s New York field office from 2016 until he retired in 2018. A former Russian diplomat introduced him to an agent of Deripaska’s before he retired, according to the Justice Department. McGonigal will be sentenced in February for a separate case of concealing a loan from an Albanian intelligence officer. 

Dig deeper: Read Emma Freire’s report in WORLD Magazine about how 9/11 and the quest for power have turned the FBI into a political weapon.