“Payed by the Russian oligarch Deripaska” – Corriere.it

From our correspondent
New York – The former head of the FBI’s counter-terrorism unit has been arrested in New York on charges of attempting to oust a Russian oligarch and Putin ally. Oleg Deripaska
, from the list of individuals affected by US sanctions. According to the indictment: Charles McGonigal was paid $25,000 a month through a law firm as a consultant so that Deripaska could get away with it. He also charged former Russian diplomat Sergei Shestakov, who worked as an interpreter in a Brooklyn court.

The 55-year-old McGonigal’s activity reportedly began after he retired from the FBI in 2018In the years that followed, he investigated Deripaska himself. But it turned out that while he was still in the service, he allegedly used his connections to help the daughter of an oligarch get an internship in the police department. McGonigal, who lives in New York, was arrested last Saturday at New York’s JFK airport on his way back from the Middle East. The first hearing took place yesterday in Manhattan. Even a federal prosecutor in Washington accuses him of accepting, while still working as a federal agent, $225,000 in cash from a former Albanian intelligence agent who lived in New Jersey with interests in Eastern Europe. The same person later became an FBI source.

The indictment was a bad blow for the FBI: McGonigal was considered one of the most trusted agents. The fact that an official of his rank has been compromised also jeopardizes the Justice Department’s broader attempt to shut down the activities of sanctioned Russian businessmen on US soil. McGonigal had a lot of sensitive information in his possession, he knew the names of the Russians Washington wanted to sanction when the list (which included Deripaska) was still top secret, he had worked in cooperation with the CIA and may have been privy to it. Espionage investigations of foreigners or US citizens suspected of working for foreign governments. He risks twenty years in prison for each of the two most serious charges.