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Reuters

A former top FBI official was charged on Monday with working for sanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, as US prosecutors ramp up efforts to enforce sanctions on Russian officials and police their alleged enablers.
Charles McGonigal, who led the FBI’s counter-intelligence division in New York before retiring in 2018, pleaded not guilty to four criminal counts including sanctions violations and money laundering at a hearing in Manhattan federal court.
He was released on US$500,000 bond, following his arrest over the weekend.
Prosecutors said McGonigal, 54, in 2021 received concealed payments from Deripaska, who was sanctioned in 2018, in exchange for investigating a rival oligarch.
McGonigal was also charged with unsuccessfully pushing in 2019 to lift sanctions against Deripaska.
Sanctions “must be enforced equally against all US citizens in order to be successful,” FBI Assistant Director in Charge Michael Driscoll said in a statement. “There are no exceptions for anyone, including a former FBI official.”
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Separately on Monday, federal prosecutors in Washington said McGonigal received US$225,000 in cash from a former member of Albania’s intelligence service, who had been a source in an investigation into foreign political lobbying that McGonigal was supervising.
McGonigal faces nine counts in that case, including making false statements to conceal from the FBI the nature of his relationship with the person.
“This is obviously a distressing day for Mr McGonigal and his family,” the defendant’s lawyer Seth DuCharme told reporters after the Manhattan hearing. “We’ll review the evidence, we’ll closely scrutinise it, and we have a lot of confidence in Mr McGonigal.”
Deripaska, the founder of Russian aluminium company Rusal, was among two dozen Russian oligarchs and government officials blacklisted by Washington in 2018 in reaction to Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 US election.

He and the Kremlin have denied any election interference.
Also charged in the Manhattan case was Sergey Shestakov, a former Soviet diplomat who later became an American citizen and Russian language interpreter for US courts and government agencies.
Prosecutors said Shestakov he worked with McGonigal to help Deripaska, and made false statements to investigators.
Shestakov pleaded not guilty on Monday and was released on US$200,000 bond.
The enforcement of sanctions are part of US efforts to pressure Moscow to stop its war in Ukraine, which the Kremlin calls a “special military operation”.
Deripaska was charged last September with violating the sanctions against him by arranging to have his children born in the United States.
The following month, British businessman Graham Bonham-Carter was charged with conspiring to violate sanctions by trying to move Deripaska’s artwork out of the United States.


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Ex-top FBI official charged with working for sanctioned Russian oligarch

Charles McGonigal, the former head of counterintelligence for the FBI’s New York office, stands silently as his lawyer gives a statement to the media in New York on Monday. Photo: AFP

Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska. Photo: Reuters

Belarusian ‘sex trainer’ Anastasia Vashukevich claims she handed over information about Russian election meddling to oligarch Oleg Deripaska

Anastasia Vashukevich, also known as Nastya Rybka, was deported from Thailand to Russia after her arrest and pleading guilty to charges including conspiracy and soliciting. Photo: Reuters

Belarusian model Anastasia Vashukevich, also known on social media as Nastya Rybka, talks during an interview with the Associated Press in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Feb. 1, 2019. Anastasia Vashukevich who has claimed to have information on the ties between Russians and the Donald Trump election campaign says that she has turned it over to Russian billionaire businessman Oleg Deripaska. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)

FILE PHOTO: Anastasia Vashukevich, a Belarusian model and escort who caused a stir last year after she was arrested in Thailand and said she had evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, is pictured at the immigration detention center before being deported in Bangkok, Thailand, January 17, 2019. REUTERS/Jorge Silva/File Photo

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Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich in Gothenburg, Sweden in 2021. Photo: AP

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Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) shakes hands with Russian businessman and founder of USM Holdings Alisher Usmanov at the Kremlin in Moscow in November 2018. Photo: Sputnik/Kremlin via Reuters

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Charles McGonigal, who once led the agency’s counter-intelligence division in New York, faces four counts including sanctions violations and money laundering
He is accused of being paid by Oleg Deripaska to investigate a rival oligarch, and of pushing for the lifting of sanctions on the Russian billionaire


Charles McGonigal, who once led the agency’s counter-intelligence division in New York, is accused of being paid by Oleg Deripaska to investigate a rival oligarch, and of pushing for the lifting of sanctions on Deripaska.
