After violating the prohibitions imposed by the Russian billionaire, Charles McGonigal has caused controversy.
A former FBI special agent in charge of counterintelligence at the bureau’s New York Field Office was charged and arrested on Monday, according to a statement from the Department of Justice, for allegedly violating American sanctions on a Russian oligarch.
The Justice Department said that Charles McGonigal, who retired from the FBI in 2018, conspired with another defendant to offer services to the billionaire in contravention of American sanctions imposed on Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska in 2018.
These charges included planning to go against and avoid U.S. sanctions, planning to launder money, and actually doing so.
They were both held on Saturday, according to the department, and will make their court appearance on Monday before a federal judge in Manhattan.
What Did He Do in the Charles McGonigal Controversy?
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Charles McGonigal has sparked debate by breaking the Russian oligarch’s sanctions.
According to the unsealed indictment from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, McGonigal and a former Russian ambassador and interpreter agreed to look into Deripaska’s rival Russian tycoon.
It was carried out in spite of the sanctions the US imposed on Deripaska in 2018 in return for cash payments made undercover.
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The report claims that after leaving the FBI in 2019, McGonigal began collaborating closely with Deripaska to get the sanctions placed on the Russian tycoon repealed.
Charles McGonigal was aware that his actions were illegal
McGonigal allegedly knew that his conduct violated the law, according to federal authorities. In his capacity as the special agent in charge, he was given secret intelligence that Deripaska would be added to a list of oligarchs with strong links to the Kremlin who were being considered for sanctions.
Deripaska was penalized for working in Russia’s energy industry and for having “acted or purported to act” on behalf of a senior member of the Russian government, according to the Treasury Department. The sanctions were a consequence of Russia’s 2014 annexation of the Ukrainian province of Crimea.
The Russian agent was brought to a major Manhattan legal firm by McGonigal and Shestakov after they parted ways with the FBI, the indictment claims, and the agent later hired the firm in an effort to get sanctions on Deripaska removed.
Charles McGonigal, a former FBI agent, was charged with five counts of conspiring to breach the U.S. sanctions on Russian aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska. He is accused of money laundering.
A former Russian ambassador who became a citizen and served as a translator for federal courts and prosecutors, Sergey Shestakov, was also accused in the conspiracy.
The two reportedly violated American sanctions in 2021 while working for Deripaska to investigate an unidentified rival Russian tycoon, according to federal authorities. They apparently attempted to conceal their work as well. Shestakov is also charged with lying to FBI personnel.
McGonigal is also facing federal charges in the District of Columbia over at least $225,000 in cash he allegedly received from a person with commercial interests in Europe and who worked for a foreign intelligence outfit.
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