Former FBI Counterintelligence Chief Sentenced to 4 Years in Prison for Ties to Russian Oligarch Oleg Deripaska
On December 15, as reported by ABC, the Manhattan Federal Court found former head of counterintelligence for the New York FBI, Charles McGonigal, guilty and sentenced him to four years in prison for collaborating with sanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, a close associate of Russian dictator and war criminal Vladimir Putin. The collaboration, admitted by McGonigal in September 2023, aimed at money laundering and schemes to bypass sanctions.
The ex-counterintelligence agent was arrested by the FBI at Kennedy Airport in January 2023 and was soon released on bail of $500,000. On the same day, his accomplice, former Soviet and Russian diplomat Sergei Shestakov, who obtained American citizenship after leaving the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and worked as an interpreter in federal courts, was also arrested. Shestakov was released on bail of $200,000, but the former Russian citizen did not admit his guilt.
The accusatory documents mentioned a conspiracy by McGonigal with Oleg Deripaska, who hired the counterintelligence chief to find compromising material on his competitor, oligarch Vladimir Potanin, specifically claiming that Potanin had hidden assets worth over $500 million. Despite sanctions against Deripaska for aiding Moscow's interference in the 2016 US presidential elections, McGonigal accepted the businessman's offer and, in addition to seeking compromising material, also devised schemes to help him evade sanctions.
During the investigation, the defendant repented and admitted to wholeheartedly carrying out Deripaska's orders, receiving compensation through intermediaries. The compensation for the counterintelligence agent's delicate services amounted to around $800,000. McGonigal, a former FBI agent, headed the counterintelligence department in New York from 2016 to 2018. As noted by the prosecution, it was during this period that McGonigal oversaw investigations into the unlawful actions of Russian oligarchs, including Deripaska.
Furthermore, through the aforementioned former diplomat Shestakov, McGonigal also met another Russian "diplomat," Evgeny Fokin (according to the prosecution, a "man of Oleg Deripaska"), and even helped arrange his daughter as an intern with the New York Police Department. McGonigal introduced Fokin to a law firm that could assist in lifting sanctions against Deripaska, and if McGonigal had managed to gather compromising material, to subject Potanin to sanctions.
The court sentenced the former head of counterintelligence to four years and two months in prison, imposed a fine of $40,000, and ordered him to report to the correctional facility in February 2024.