A former senior official at the FBI has pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions and launder money while working for Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska.
Charles McGonigal, 55, had been the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division in New York, where he oversaw efforts to root out foreign spies and led investigations of Russian oligarchs, including Deripaska. After retiring in 2018, McGonigal said he went to work for the billionaire, who paid him $17,500.
"I never intended to hurt the United States, the FBI or my friends and loved ones,” McGonigal told U.S. District Judge Jennifer H. Rearden in New York on Tuesday, his voice breaking from emotion. His sentencing was scheduled for Dec. 14 and he faces up to five years in prison.