Former FBI agent Charles McGonigal pleads guilty to working for Russian oligarch

The disgraced former head of the FBI’s counterintelligence division in New York provided a sorrowful mea culpa in Manhattan federal courtroom Tuesday — admitting that he conspired to violate US sanctions whereas working for a Russian oligarch.

Charles McGonigal — who as soon as investigated the Trump marketing campaign’s alleged Russia ties earlier than becoming entangled himself — instructed the courtroom that he regretted working for Oleg Deripaska, a Russian billionaire and enterprise magnate.

“I perceive what my actions have resulted in, and I’m deeply remorseful,” McGonigal, 55, mentioned in courtroom, choking up as he spoke. “My actions have been by no means supposed to harm the USA, the FBI or my household and pals.”

He admitted to pocketing greater than $17,000 to assist Deripaska collect grime on a rival Russian oligarch.

Federal prosecutors mentioned McGonigal was additionally attempting to get Deripaska taken off the US sanctions checklist, the place he’d been positioned in 2018 in connection to Russia’s occupation of Crimea.

He pleaded responsible to a single depend of conspiring to launder cash and violate the Worldwide Emergency Financial Powers Act.

McGonigal, of New York Metropolis, might resist 5 years in jail when he’s sentenced by Choose Jennifer Rearden on Dec. 14.

After he emerged from the courtroom, the previous agent mentioned solely three fast phrases to The Submit: “I really feel relieved!”

US Lawyer Damien Williams took a victory lap following the proceedings.

“After his tenure as a high-level FBI official who supervised and took part in investigations of Russian oligarchs, Charles McGonigal has now admitted that he agreed to evade U.S. sanctions by offering providers to a type of oligarchs, Oleg Deripaska,”  Williams mentioned in an announcement.

“This Workplace will proceed to carry to account those that violate U.S. sanctions for their very own monetary profit.”

In the meantime, McGonigal’s lawyer, Seth DuCharme, mentioned his shopper “did the correct factor.”

“I really feel it was a good decision,” DuCharme mentioned. “He had a black cloud over him, and the clouds are starting to half. He’s accepted accountability.”

McGonigal, who led the bureau’s NYC counterintelligence division from 2016 to his 2018 retirement, was indicted in January for working for Deripaska in 2021. Authorities arrested him at JFK Airport just a few weeks after the flip of the brand new 12 months.

The previous special-agent-in-charge was legally required to report his contact with overseas officers to the bureau. As a substitute, he hid his ties and pursued enterprise and journey that conflicted together with his job, in accordance with prosecutors.

He initially pleaded not responsible to 4 counts: Conspiring to violate and evade US sanctions, cash laundering, conspiring to commit cash laundering and conspiring to violate federal legislation in opposition to doing enterprise with sanctioned people.

McGonigal – who’s been free on $500,000 bond since his arrest – performed a central role in the bureau’s investigation of former President Donald Trump that led to a particular counsel probe into Russian meddling within the 2016 election.

The indictment mentioned that whereas he was nonetheless with the FBI, McGonigal obtained categorized data that mentioned Deripaska could be sanctioned by the US after Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.

Deripaska — a Kremlin-friendly magnate who based aluminum large Rusal — had allegedly been investigated for cash laundering, wiretapping, threats in opposition to enterprise rivals, extortion and racketeering, amongst different issues.

After McGonigal left the bureau in 2019, a legislation agency combating Deripaska’s sanctions employed him to get the oligarch “delisted.” McGonigal — together with two different males — additionally agreed to a 2021 deal wherein they have been paid by a Russian financial institution to research one in all Deripaska’s rival oligarchs, prosecutors mentioned.

The financial institution, headquartered in Cypress, wired the $17,500 to a New Jersey firm owned by one in all McGonigal’s pals earlier than it ended up within the ex-FBI agent’s checking account.

McGonigal was individually indicted in Washington DC for allegedly hiding $225,000 in funds from a former member of Albania’s intelligence service and taking a secret assembly with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama whereas he labored for the FBI.

He has pleaded not responsible in that case, which is pending trial.