A former high-ranking FBI counterintelligence official has pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate sanctions on Russia by going to work, after he retired, for an oligarch he once investigated.
Charles McGonigal, 55, said he was “deeply remorseful” for work he did in 2021 for the billionaire industrialist Oleg Deripaska.
McGonigal was a former special agent in charge of the FBI’s counterintelligence division in New York.
He told a federal judge in New York that he accepted more than $17,000 to help Mr Deripaska collect derogatory information about another Russian oligarch who was a business competitor.
Mr Deripaska has been under US sanctions since 2018 for reasons related to Russia’s occupation of Crimea.
McGonigal was also trying to help Mr Deripaska get off the sanctions list, assistant US attorney Rebecca Dell said.
She added he was in negotiations along with co-conspirators to receive a fee of $650,000 to $3m to hunt for electronic files revealing hidden assets of $500m belonging to the oligarch’s business rival.
McGonigal pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiring to launder money and violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
He could face up to five years in prison and is due to be sentenced on 14 December.
