Former FBI official pleads guilty to working with Russian oligarch under sanctions

A former top counterintelligence official for the FBI’s New York field office pleaded guilty on Tuesday to violating U.S. sanctions by helping a Russian oligarch dig up information on his business competitor.

Charles McGonigal, who investigated Russian oligarchs during his two-decade tenure at the FBI before retiring in 2018, struck a plea deal with prosecutors from the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York. In federal court, he admitted to one count of conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and money laundering, according to the Justice Department.

The charge, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, stemmed from a 2021 scheme to evade U.S. sanctions on behalf of Oleg Deripaska, an aluminum magnate and associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin.