Former FBI agent arrested, helped Russian oligarch, hid payments from former Albanian intelligence official

Charles McGongal, the special agent who headed the counterintelligence Division in New York during 2016-2018, is charged with a lawsuit released Monday that he collaborated with a former Soviet diplomat who already worked as an interpreter for Russian militant Oleg Deripaska.

McGongal, who conducted investigations into Russian oligarchs, including Mr. Deripaska, before retirement in 2018, is accused of working to lift sanctions against him in 2019 and of receiving money from him in 2021 to investigate a rival oligarch.

McGongal, 54, and translator Sergey Sestakov, 69, were arrested on Saturday. McGongal was stopped after landing at the International Airport “F. Kennedy” They are expected to appear before the Manhattan court Monday and are being held in the federal prison in Brooklyn.

McGongal and Mr. Sestakov are charged with violations, as well as conspiring to violate the International Economic Emergency Authority Law, conspiring to launder money and money laundering. Sestakov is also accused of making false statements about the FBI.

McGonigal was charged in parallel with a court in the capital Washington for hiding $225 thousand in payments he received from an external source, a person with whom he traveled together to Europe.

The Justice Department says McGonigal also hid from the FBI the details of a trip he made to Albania in 2017, along with a former Albanian intelligence service official who had given him $2225.

Prosecutors also say he did not give the name of the person who accompanied him during the trip, as well as did not inform him that his stay had been secured for free.

The Justice Department says that after arriving in Albania, he met with the Albanian prime minister and discouraged him from granting licenses to Russian guacca companies for oil research in the country. Prosecutors say Albanian people who are contact with Mr. McGonigal had financial interests with these decisions.

McGonigal should have reported contacts with foreign officials to the FBI, but prosecutors say he had hidden these from his employer, while continuing on business and international trips that put him in conflict with his duties as a law enforcement officer.

The U.S. Treasury Department added Mr. Deripaska to the list of sanctions in 2018, regarding ties with the Russian government and the Russian energy sector, while Russia repeatedly threatened Ukraine.

In September, federal prosecutors in Manhattan accused Mr. Deripaska and three of his associates of conspiring to violate US sanctions by taking measures to ensure that his child was born in the United States.

Commentary messages were left for gentlemen McGonigal and Sestakov's lawyers. Lawyers for Mr. Deripaska did not immediately respond to a message sent Monday in email requesting comment.

The indictment in New York says that Mr. McGonnigal was released by Mr. Sestakkov in 2018 with a former Soviet diplomat operating as an agent for Mr. Deripaska. The person's name is not given in the court indictment, but the Justice Department says it was “said in public media reports that it was official of Russian intelligence services”.

According to the prosecution, Mr. Sestakov asked Mr. McGonigal for his help so that Mr. Derapaska's daughter could provide a stage at the New York Police Department. Mr. McGongal admitted, prosecutors say, and told a contact with the police department that “I have an interest in her father for a number of reasons”. / VOA