Ex-FBI agent charged with secretly helping designated Russian oligarch
A former Special Agent in Charge of the FBI New York Counterintelligence Division has been arrested on criminal charges for allegedly violating US sanctions while working for blacklisted Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.
A statement by the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York said that Charles McGonigal, 54, was assisted by Sergey Shestakov, a former Soviet and Russian diplomat who later became a US citizen and a Russian interpreter for courts and government offices. Shestakov, 66, was also named in the five-count indictment.
The pair has been charged with violating sanctions by allegedly taking concealed payments from Deripaska in return for investigating another billionaire rival. Deripaska was designated by the United States last year for alleged interference in the 2016 US presidential election.
McGonigal and Shestakov ‘both previously worked with Deripaska to attempt to have his sanctions removed, and, as public servants, they should have known better,’ said US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams. ‘This Office will continue to prosecute those who violate U.S. sanctions enacted in response to Russian belligerence in Ukraine in order to line their own pockets.’
Each of the five counts against the defendants carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
