A former high-ranking FBI agent has been sentenced to over four years in prison for aiding a Russian oligarch in violating US sanctions. Charles McGonigal, who was a counterintelligence officer in the FBI's New York field office, pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge in September and his lawyers had petitioned the court for no prison time. McGonigal, after his retirement in 2018, reportedly provided information to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska to harm a business competitor, and received a payment of $17,500 for laundering from a Russian bank to Cyprus to a business bank account in New Jersey and then to McGonigal’s private account.

Charles McGonigal, a former high-ranking FBI counterintelligence official, has been accused of violating U.S. sanctions and conspiring to launder money. He allegedly received secret payments from a sanctioned Russian oligarch, Oleg Deripaska, to dig up dirt on a rival oligarch… pic.twitter.com/HBPReLQI6S

— 🟢BandOfBrothersQ🟢 (@BandOfBrothersQ) December 14, 2023

The judge, Jennifer H Rearden, said her sentence was meant to balance McGonigal’s 22 years of FBI service with the “extremely serious nature of his crimes." McGonigal also awaits another sentencing in Washington DC early next year for pleading guilty of concealing $225,000 in payments from a former Albanian intelligence officer. Federal prosecutors had requested a five-year prison sentence, accusing McGonigal of abusing the skills and influence his country entrusted him with by secretly working with Deripaska. McGonigal was the special agent in charge of the Counterintelligence Division in the FBI's New York field office, supervising and participating in investigations of Russian oligarchs, including Deripaska, to whom he provided impermissible services.