NEW YORK (AP) — A former top FBI counterintelligence official has been indicted on charges that he helped a Russian oligarch, in violation of U.S. sanctions.
Charles McGonigal, the former special agent in charge of the FBI’s counterintelligence division in New York, was accused in an indictment unsealed Monday of working with a former Soviet diplomat who acted as a Russian interpreter on behalf of Russian energy tycoon Oleg Deripaska.
McGonigal was charged separately in federal court in Washington, DC with concealing $225,000 in payments she received from outside sources that she traveled to Europe with.
McGonigal was required to report to the FBI contacts with foreign officials, but prosecutors said he hid them from his employer while pursuing business and foreign travel that created a conflict of interest with his law enforcement duties.
McGonigal, who had overseen investigations into Russian oligarchs, including Deripaska, before retiring in 2018, allegedly worked to get Deripaska’s sanctions lifted in 2019 and take money from him in 2021 to investigate rival oligarchs.
McGonigal, 54, and his interpreter, Sergey Shestakov, 69, were arrested Saturday and are scheduled to appear in court in Manhattan on Monday.
They are charged with violating and conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, conspiracy to commit money laundering and money laundering. Shestakov is also accused of making material misrepresentations to the FBI.
The US Treasury Department added Deripaska to its sanctions list in 2018 for his ties to the Russian government and the Russian energy sector amid Russia’s ongoing threats against Ukraine.
Messages seeking comment were left for attorneys for McGonigal and Shestakov. A lawyer for Deripaska did not immediately return an email seeking comment Monday.
The New York indictment alleges that McGonigal was introduced by Shesktaov in 2018 to a former Soviet diplomat who was an agent for Deripaska. The man was not identified in court papers, but the Justice Department said he was “rumored in public media reports to be a Russian intelligence official.”
According to the indictment, Shesktaov asked McGonigal for help in getting agent Deripaska’s daughter an internship at the New York Police Department. McGonigal agreed, the prosecutor said, and told the contact of the police department that, “I have an interest in the father for some reason.”