Former FBI official Charles McGonigal, who served as chief of counterintelligence in the bureau’s New York City office, was sentenced Thursday to more than four years in prison for his illicit work for a Russian oligarch.
McGonigal’s employment in 2019 by a law firm trying to reverse Deripaska’s sanctions was considered legal under U.S. law, but subsequent assignments on behalf of Deripaska were not, which McGonigal admitted in court at his plea proceeding.
“If nations such as Russia can avoid and influence these sanctions through conduct like [McGonigal’s], then the sanctions would be ineffective, increasing the chance of war,” Rearden said Thursday before handing down the sentence.
“I recognize more than ever that I betrayed the confidence and trust of those close to me,” he said. “For the rest of my life I will be fighting to regain that trust and becoming a better person.”
His lawyers sought a sentence that would not include serving time in prison, citing years of public service for the United States. McGonigal was part of the cleanup effort at Ground Zero after 9/11 and helped prevent a planned attack on a New York City subway, they said.
“His work has got to count for something,” McGonigal’s lawyer Seth DuCharme said at the proceeding.
“He was not content to serve only the country that trusted him with one of the most important counterespionage jobs,” Scotten argued.
In August, McGonigal pleaded guilty to conspiring to violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and money laundering. The money laundering count relates to his efforts in 2021 to remove Deripaska from the U.S. sanctions list.
He was charged separately in Washington, where he was accused of hiding $225,000 that he received from a former Albanian intelligence agent. He also pleaded guilty in that case and is scheduled for sentencing Feb. 16.
