Photo: YURI GRIPAS / AFP / Getty Images
For: The opinion Posted Jan 23, 2023, 1:50 pm EST
A former special agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Charles F. McGonigal, 54, was arrested and accused of several crimes for allegedly collaborating with a Russian oligarch in violation of the sanctions imposed by the United States on that country, federal authorities reported.
Charles F. McGonigal, who was the head of the counterintelligence division of the FBI in New York until he retired in 2018, he faces five charges including conspiracy to evade sanctions and conspiracy to launder money.
together with him, too Sergey Shestakov, a former Russian diplomat, was arrested this Saturday who worked in the US as an interpreter and who is charged in this same case, the Department of Justice explained in a statement.
Both are scheduled to appear this Monday before a judge in a federal court in the New York district of Manhattan.
Authorities accuse McGonigal of accepting secret payments from oligarch Oleg Deripaska in exchange for investigating a rival, using shell companies to hide this collaboration, which according to the US violates the sanctions that have been imposed on the millionaire Russian businessman since 2018.
Retired FBI Executive Charged with Concealing $225,000 in Cash Received from Former Intelligence Officerhttps://t.co/5AiuEntMLe
— National Security Division, US Dept of Justice (@DOJNatSec) January 23, 2023
Deripaska, a well-known figure close to the Russian government, was charged last year with evading those sanctions and lying to get his son to be born in the United States.
According to prosecutors, the former FBI agent led the investigation of Russian oligarchs during his careerincluding Deripaska himself, and used that experience to first try to get the punishments imposed on the businessman lifted in 2019 and then collaborate with him and gather information on one of his rivals in 2021.
US authorities emphasize that both McGonigal and Shestakov, who would have collaborated with him in these operations, were aware that he was violating sanctions.
In a parallel case, McGonigal himself was charged Monday in a Washington court with concealing $225,000 in payments received.
With information from Efe.
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