The former head of counterintelligence for the FBI’s New York field office was sentenced to just over four years in prison for working for a sanctioned Russian oligarch after leaving the government.
Charles McGonigal, a 22-year veteran of the FBI, pleaded guilty in August to one count of conspiracy to violate US sanctions and money laundering for working for Oleg Deripaska, a wealthy Russian with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Judge Jennifer Rearden sentenced McGonigal to 50 months in prison, just below the statutory maximum of five years. The judge ordered McGonigal to surrender to prison on February 26.
McGonigal, the judge said, “repeatedly flouted and manipulated the sanctions regimes vital” to US national security interests and “the undeniable seriousness of this and the need to respect the law … compels a meaningful custodial sentence.” At the same time, the judge said his actions “do not all together stamp out” his distinguished career and the “profoundly important contributions” he made to the US.
Before the sentencing was handed down, McGonigal told the judge he has a “deep sense of remorse and sorrow for my actions.”
“I, more than anyone, know that I have committed a felony and as a former FBI special agent it causes me extreme mental, emotional and physical pain – not to mention the shame I feel in embarrassing myself and the FBI, the organization I love and respect,” he said while fighting back tears.
“I’m humbly asking for a second chance,” McGonigal told the judge.
Prosecutors argued McGonigal should receive five years in prison, saying his work for Deripaska put US national security at risk, positing that if a foreign government had to choose between military supplies or having the former FBI counterintelligence chief “on their payroll,” it is an easy…
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