Ex-FBI counterintelligence chief Charles McGonigal sentenced to 50 months in prison for working with Russian oligarch

One of many highest-ranking FBI brokers to ever face felony expenses was sentenced to over 4 years in jail on Thursday for secretly colluding with a Russian oligarch.

Charles McGonigal, a former counterintelligence chief within the FBI’s New York area workplace, pleaded responsible to a conspiracy cost. McGonigal’s attorneys had requested for no jail time, however the decide got here down harshly on the previous FBI bigwig.

“I dedicated a felony and as a former FBI particular agent it causes me excessive emotional and bodily ache,” McGonigal advised the decide previous to the imposition of the sentence. “I stand earlier than you at present with a deep sense of regret.”

Decide Jennifer Rearden paid tribute to McGonigal’s “extraordinary contributions” to counterespionage operations on the nation’s behalf, however famous the “extraordinary seriousness” of his selecting to work for Oleg Deripaska, whom the U.S. sanctioned for enabling Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

“Mr. McGongial effectively knew his actions violated these sanctions,” Rearden mentioned earlier than she imposed the 50-month sentence.

Federal prosecutors had requested a five-year jail time period in a sentencing memorandum after accusing him of abusing the abilities and affect his nation entrusted him with by secretly working with Deripaska.

McGonigal has been advised to give up to authorities for his jail sentence on Feb. 26.

He served because the particular agent answerable for the Counterintelligence Division of the FBI’s New York area workplace. In that place, McGonigal supervised and took part in investigations of Russian oligarchs, together with Deripaska, to whom he supplied impermissible providers.

“McGonigal knew full effectively that Deripaska was sanctioned,” prosecutors mentioned of their sentencing memorandum. “McGonigal additionally can not declare that he was unaware that he was promoting his providers to a scoundrel working towards America’s pursuits.”

Regardless of that information, they mentioned McGonigal sought to collect derogatory details about a rival oligarch, Vladimir Potanin, and Potanin’s curiosity in an organization that he and Deripaska had been vying to regulate.

Prosecutors forged it as a severe crime that deserved a severe punishment.

“Though the primary process Deripaska assigned his new recruit might not have appeared notably nefarious, McGonigal hoped to do hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in future work for the oligarch,” prosecutors mentioned. “McGonigal was promoting one thing simply as helpful to America’s enemies as navy grade expertise: The “erosion … in any rule of legislation” that ensues when a nation’s counterintelligence professionals start ‘working on the behest of the best bidder,’ to make use of McGonigal’s description of his personal crimes,” prosecutors mentioned.

In a letter to the court docket earlier this month, McGonigal’s attorneys mentioned he deserved no jail time for conspiring to assist Deripaska.

Protection attorneys urged the decide to stability McGonigal’s “extraordinary service” to the nation throughout his 22-year profession in legislation enforcement and counterintelligence. The protection argued “a non-custodial sentence is adequate to serve the ends of justice.”

“[J]ust punishment could also be imposed upon Mr. McGonigal with out the necessity for a prolonged time period of incarceration. His fall from grace has been precipitous, having misplaced his job, his popularity and the peace of his household life,” protection lawyer Seth DuCharme mentioned.

McGonigal faces sentencing early subsequent 12 months in a separate case introduced in Washington, D.C., that accused him of concealing a fee from an Albanian intelligence official whereas on the job.

In a pre-sentencing memorandum, protection attorneys conceded McGonigal supplied impermissible providers to Deripaska however argued the knowledge McGonigal supplied to Deripaska a few rival oligarch aligned with the pursuits of america.

“It was flawed, and he admits that. However it’s critically essential that the Court docket recognize, in imposing a simply punishment, that Mr. McGonigal understood that the work he agreed to do was according to, not in rigidity with, U.S. overseas coverage within the sense that it was in furtherance of probably sanctioning one other Russian oligarch,” DuCharme mentioned.