The US federal grand jury has opened an investigation into payments or gifts that former FBI agent Charles McGonigal may have received from officials in Montenegro, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, US media reported on Monday.
McGonigal, who used to head the bureau’s counterintelligence division in New York, has been charged with allegedly working with a sanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska after he retired and concealing hundreds of thousands of dollars he received from a former employee of an Albanian intelligence agency while he was a top official at the bureau.
McGonigal, who retired from the FBI in 2018, has pleaded not guilty charges.
According to the indictment, McGonigal concealed from the FBI the nature of his relationship with a former foreign security officer and businessperson who had ongoing business interests in foreign countries and with foreign governments.
“McGonigal requested and received at least 225,000 US dollars in cash from the individual and travelled abroad with the individual and met with foreign nationals. The individual later served as an FBI source in a criminal investigation involving foreign political lobbying over which McGonigal had official supervisory responsibility, the US Department of Justice said on Monday.
Citing a subpoena issued in November, media reported that the grand jury requested any materials on McGonigal’s communications or meetings with government officials in the Balkans or people associated with them.
Prosecutors allege that during several trips overseas to Albania, Austria, and Germany, McGonigal failed to disclose on US government forms that he met “the prime minister of Albania, a Kosovar politician and others”.
Prosecutors also requested information on McGonigal’s travels to Montenegro, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, but also any payments or gifts provided to former FBI agents from those countries since April 2017.
The federal court in Manhattan has also charged McGonigal and former Soviet and Russian diplomat Sergey Shestakov with violating and conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and money laundering.
According to the indictment, McGonigal and Shestakov conspired in 2021 to provide services to Oleg Deripaska in violation of US sanctions imposed on the Russian billionaire for alleged meddling in the 2016 American presidential election.
Following their negotiations with an agent of Deripaska, McGonigal and Shestakov investigated a rival Russian oligarch in return for concealed payments from Deripaska, the indictment claims.
McGonigal was also charged with unsuccessfully pushing for the lifting of the sanctions against Deripaska. /Birn
