WASHINGTON (AP) — A former FBI counterintelligence official was sentenced Friday to more than two years in prison for accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash from a businessman with ties to the Albanian government and trying to cover up corrupt finances. Ta. relationship.
Charles McGonigal, 55, oversaw national security operations at the FBI in New York for about two years before retiring in 2018. Prosecutors said he appeared to be promoting Albanian interests in the United States after soliciting and receiving about $225,000 from a man he once worked for in 2017. It is said that
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U.S. District Judge Colleen Koller Kotelly sentenced McGonigal to two years and four months in prison in the case filed in Washington, D.C. She ordered McGonigal to serve 50 consecutive months in prison in a separate case in New York. He will be sentenced to a total of six years and six months when he is released from prison next month.
Ms McGonigal expressed regret and sadness over what she called a “mistake” and said she had betrayed the trust and confidence of her loved ones.
“I’m going to spend the rest of my life fighting to regain my faith and become a better person,” he told Kohler-Kotely before he was sentenced.
Charles McGonigal, former special agent in charge of the FBI’s counterintelligence division in New York, arrives at a federal courthouse in Washington on Friday, February 16, 2024.
The judge told McGonigal that McGonigal, who held the highest national security position in the federal government, appeared to have “lost his moral compass” at the end of a distinguished FBI career. She said his remorse seemed genuine.
“Unfortunately, the damage will not be repaired,” she added.
Justice Department prosecutors had recommended that McGonigal be sentenced to two years and six months in prison for the Washington case alone.
“Abuse of the public trust is especially true when, as in this case, the motive is pure greed and the defendant is a law enforcement officer charged with enforcing the same law that committed the flagrant violation. This is egregious,” they said in a court filing.
In December, a federal judge in New York sentenced McGonigal to four years and two months in prison for conspiring to violate sanctions against Russia by working for a Russian oligarch he had previously investigated. Oligarch and billionaire businessman Oleg Deripaska was under US sanctions for reasons related to Russia’s occupation of Crimea.
McGonigal was scheduled to report to prison next month to begin serving his sentence in the New York case. His lawyers asked a judge in Washington to refrain from imposing further prison time, saying he had already received “just punishment” for his crimes.
“His fall from grace has been rapid, with the loss of his job, reputation, and peaceful family life, and he faces the daunting prospect of a 50-month prison sentence, which he will begin serving,” his attorneys wrote.
Mr. McGonigal was also separately charged with concealing his relationship with a former Albanian official who was a naturalized U.S. citizen and lived in New Jersey. McGonigal said that after leaving the FBI, he borrowed $225,000 to start a security consulting business. He did not repay the loan.
In 2017, McGonigal flew to Albania with his benefactor and met with Albania’s former energy minister and the country’s prime minister. Prosecutors said Mr McGonigle warned the prime minister to avoid giving permits to Russian front companies to drill oil fields in Albania. They allege that McGonigal’s travel companion, the energy minister, had a financial interest in the Albanian government’s decisions regarding drilling permits.
McGonigal pleaded guilty last September to concealing material facts, a charge that could carry a maximum penalty of five years in prison. He admitted that he failed to report his loans, his trips to Europe with people who lent him money, and his contacts with foreign officials during his travels.
“He put his own greed above service to his country,” prosecutor Elizabeth Aloy said Friday.
Defense attorney Seth Ducharme asked the judge to have McGonigal’s two sentences served concurrently. Ducharme argued that McGonigal did not need to receive any further prison time beyond his 50-month sentence in New York “to serve the ends of justice.”
“He did not betray the country. He broke the law,” the lawyer said.
The FBI had to review many other investigations to determine whether McGonigal had compromised many others during his tenure.
“The defendant was working on some of the FBI’s most sensitive and sensitive issues. His lack of credibility, as revealed by the conduct underlying his conviction, could jeopardize everything.” wrote the prosecutor.
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McGonigal expressed remorse in a statement submitted to the court.
“I always wish this was all a bad dream and I could wake up soon,” he wrote.
