Ex-FBI head charged with violating US sanctions on Russia and ties to oligarch
A former top FBI agent has been charged over accusations he broke US sanctions on Russia.
Charles McGonigal is accused of agreeing to help sanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.
McGonigal, 54, led the FBI’s counterintelligence division in New York before retiring in 2018.
He has been charged alongside Sergey Shestakov, 69, a Court interpreter.
US Attorney Damian Williams said said that the two, as public servants, "should have known better".
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Williams continued: "This Office will continue to prosecute those who violate US sanctions enacted in response to Russian belligerence in Ukraine in order to line their own pockets.”
The two have been charged under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), a US federal law which allows the President to impose sanctions on individuals in times of extraordinary threat to the US.
The two are accused of helping Russian billionaire and businessman Oleg Deripaska violate sanctions (Getty Images)A national emergency was declared in relation to Ukraine in 2014 by then-President Barack Obama.
Since then a number of individuals have been added to the list of Specially Designated Nationals (SDNs) and in 2018, so was Oleg Deripaska.
According to the US Treasury, Deripaska had acted on behalf of, directly or indirectly, a senior official of the Russian government and for operating in the Russian energy sector.
McGonigal and Shestakov are accused of investigating a rival Russian oligarch of Derpaska's in exchange for payments.
They are also accused of working on behalf of Deripaska to get the sanctions against Deripaska lifted.
In communications with an agent of Deripaska, the two suspects attempted to conceal the oligarch's involvement by not naming him directly and using shell companies to send and receive payments.
FBI Assistant Director in Charge Michael J. Driscoll said: "After sanctions are imposed, they must be enforced equally against all US citizens in order to be successful.
"There are no exceptions for anyone, including a former FBI official like Mr McGonigal. Supporting a designated threat to the United States and our allies is a crime the FBI will continue to pursue aggressively.”
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McGonigal and Shestakov are chared with one count of conspiring to violate and evade US sanctions, in violation of the IEEPA, one count of violating the IEEPA, one count of conspiring to commit money laundering, and one count of money laundering, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
Shestakov is also charged with one count of making false statements, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison..
While working at the FBI, McGonigal had worked on investigations of Russian oligarchs, including Deripaska.
He was separately charged Monday in federal court in Washington, D.C., in connection with accepting $225,000 in cash from a person who had been an employee of a foreign intelligence service.
Shestakov is a former Soviet and Russian diplomat who later became a US citizen and a Russian interpreter for courts and government offices.
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