The Manhattan District Court sentenced the former head of the FBI counterintelligence department in New York, Charles McGonigal, to four years and two months in prison in the case of working for Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska. This was reported by the Voice of America.
As journalists clarified, in addition to the prison term, McGonigal was given a fine of 40 thousand dollars. He was found guilty of conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
“Charles McGonigal failed to live up to the trust placed in him by his country by using his senior position in the FBI to secure his future in business. By leaving public service, he jeopardized our national security by providing services to Oleg Deripaska, a Russian tycoon who acts as an agent of Vladimir Putin,” prosecutor Damian Williams said after the verdict.
McGonigal and Russian diplomat Sergei Shestakov detained on January 23 on charges of working for Deripaska. The investigation believes that they helped him get out of the sanctions imposed in 2018 and collected dirt on Vladimir Potanin. In particular, they tried to find out about his hidden assets and second citizenship.
In August, a former FBI employee admitted working for the billionaire. “I agreed with the other party to collect derogatory information from open sources about a Russian oligarch named Vladimir Potanin,” McGonigal said. He performed this work from spring to autumn 2021 and received $17.5 thousand for it.