NEW YORK (AP) — A former FBI counterintelligence official was sentenced Thursday to more than four years in prison for violating sanctions against Russia by going to work for a Russian oligarch who sought to smear a wealthy rival after he ended his government career.
Charles McGonigal, 55, sentenced to 4 years and two months in criminal prison in Manhattan federal court through Judge Jennifer H. Rearden, who said McGonigal undermined national security by continually ignoring sanctions designed to exert economic pressure on Russia to achieve effects without the military’s use of force. He was also fined $40,000 and had $17,500 confiscated.
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, a person he once investigated.
Deripaska has been subject to U. S. sanctions since 2018 for reasons similar to Russia’s occupation of Crimea.
Having had a chance to speak, McGonigal told the judge in a trembling voice that he had “a deep sense of regret and regretted my actions. “
“I recognize more than ever that I betrayed the recognition as true of those close to me,” he said. “For the rest of my life, I will fight to regain that acceptance as true. »
As he left the courthouse, hand in hand with his wife, Pamela, he only said: “Happy holidays to everyone. “
During his plea in August on a single count of conspiracy to launder money and violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, Deripaska told the judge that he accepted more than $17,000 to help him gather disparaging information about another Russian oligarch who was a business competitor. . .
Prosecutors say McGonigal is also seeking to help Deripaska remove himself from the list and that he is in negotiations with co-conspirators for a refund ranging from $650,000 to $3 million to seek electronic files revealing $500 million in hidden assets belonging to the oligarch’s business rival.
Defense attorney Seth DuCharme requested a prison sentence, citing McGonigal’s professional accomplishments, adding his paintings after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and his investigation into two fatal terrorist attacks on U. S. embassies in Africa in 1998.
But Assistant U. S. Attorney Hagan Scotten argued for a maximum five-year term, saying McGonigal earned more than $200,000 a year before retiring from the FBI and earned more than $850,000 a year in the personnel sector as a global security officer for a leading foreign corporation when he committed his crime.
“Poverty motivated this crime, your honor. Greed did it,” he said.
Scotten said McGonigal held one of the most important counterintelligence positions in the world when he retired from a position at the FBI, which was the “crowning achievement of an outstanding career at the FBI. “
In a release, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said McGonigal’s sentence was proof that anyone who violates U.S. sanctions “will pay a heavy penalty.”
“Charles McGonigal violated his country’s acceptance of truth by employing his high-level position at the FBI to prepare for his long run in business. Once he left public service, he jeopardized our national security by offering facilities to Oleg Deripaska. , a Russian tycoon who acts as an agent of Vladimir Putin. “
McGonigal, who lives in Manhattan, was charged in federal court in Washington, D. C. , with concealing at least $225,000 in money he allegedly earned from a former Albanian intelligence official while running for the FBI. He faces sentencing in this case on Feb. 16. Rearden ordered him to report to prison on Feb. 26.
McGonigal served as a special agent in the FBI’s counterintelligence department in New York from 2016 to 2018. He oversaw investigations into Russian oligarchs, Deripaska.
The U. S. District Court for the District of Columbia upheld the sanctions imposed on Deripaska, finding that there is evidence that he had acted as an agent of Putin, the Russian president.