Ex-FBI official charged with helping Steele-linked Russian oligarch evade US sanctions
Jerry Dunleavy
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A former top FBI counterintelligence official has been charged with helping Putin-allied Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska evade sanctions put on him by the U.S. government.
Charles McGonigal, a 22-year veteran of the FBI who retired in 2018 as the special agent in charge of the FBI’s counterintelligence division in New York, was charged by the Justice Department with conspiring to violate and violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and with conspiring to commit and committing money laundering as well.
STEELE-LINKED RUSSIAN OLIGARCH INDICTED FOR SANCTIONS EVASION
While at the FBI, McGonigal had supervised and participated in investigations of Russian oligarchs, including Deripaska. McGonigal also played a role in the Trump-Russia investigation.
Deripaska himself was indicted in September for sanctions evasion related to his Basic Element Limited company, which was sanctioned by the Treasury Department in 2018 for operating on behalf of the Russian government.
McGonigal’s apparent co-conspirator, Sergey Shestakov, a former Soviet and Russian diplomat who later became a U.S. citizen and a Russian interpreter for U.S. courts and government offices, was hit with all the same charges as the former FBI official and was also charged with lying to the FBI in November 2021 when he was questioned about his and McGonigal’s relationship with Deripaska’s agent.
“Charles McGonigal, a former high-level FBI official, and Sergey Shestakov, a court interpreter, violated U.S. sanctions by agreeing to provide services to Oleg Deripaska, a sanctioned Russian oligarch,” Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said on Monday. “They both previously worked with Deripaska to attempt to have his sanctions removed, and, as public servants, they should have known better. This Office will continue to prosecute those who violate U.S. sanctions enacted in response to Russian belligerence in Ukraine in order to line their own pockets.”
A Washington, D.C., mansion tied to Deripaska was raided by the FBI in October 2021. Deripaska had sued the Treasury Department in 2019 in an effort to fight U.S. sanctions against him, and the oligarch unsuccessfully asked the Supreme Court last June to toss the sanctions.
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The Justice Department said Monday that McGonigal and Shestakov conspired in 2021 “to provide services to Deripaska, in violation of U.S. sanctions imposed on Deripaska in 2018” and that “following their negotiations with an agent of Deripaska, McGonigal and Shestakov agreed to and did investigate a rival Russian oligarch in return for concealed payments from Deripaska.”
The sanctions evasion and money laundering charges each carry a possible sentence of up to 20 years behind bars.