A former senior Soviet Foreign Ministry official in the U.S. filed as a Foreign Agent for a top aide to Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska, who has been described by the U.S. Senate as a key figure in the Kremlin’s malign influence operations.
The paperwork filed under the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) has raised numerous concerns from experts who have noted that the aide, Yevgenyi (Evgeny, Evgeniy) Fokin, has reportedly been flagged by the FBI as a former senior Russian intelligence official.
In addition, the filing raises questions about the involvement of a former senior FBI counterintelligence official who reportedly connected Fokin to a law firm and business intelligence consultants.
The FARA filing was first publicly spotted by Wendy Siegelman, an independent investigative journalist.
The Foreign Agent filing
On Nov. 29, 2021, Sergey Shestakov, the former Soviet diplomat, registered as a Foreign Agent for Fokin, the alleged former senior Russian intelligence official.
Though the filing is scarce on details, Shestakov stated that he enlisted Charles F. McGonigal, the FBI's former top counterintelligence official in New York, to connect Fokin to the law firm Kobre & Kim as well as “business intelligence consultants” Spectrum Risk Solutions.
“Mr. Fokin has contacted me seeking professional assistance in the US, which have resulted in the retention of the law firm of Kobre & Kim and later and separately the business intelligence consultants Spectrum Risk Solutions,” Shestakov stated. “I acted in hope that my assistance would result in a facilitation fee from the US entities retained, and I have received such fees.”
It wasn't immediately clear if McGonigal, like Shestakov, received a payment from Fokin.
Fokin now acts as the director of international cooperation for En+ Group, an energy conglomerate founded by Oleg Deripaska. A 2019 deal to remove En+ Group from U.S. sanctions stipulated that Deripaska must reduce his holdings in the group to under 50%, though he reportedly transferred some shares to family members and another group under his control.
In October, the FBI raided residences in Washington, D.C. and New York owned by people close to Deripaska in an unspecified criminal investigation. Information about what prompted the dramatic hours-long raids remains unclear.
Shestakov reported that the activity involving Fokin and McGonigal began over two-and-a-half years ago. FARA laws mandate that Foreign Agents, “must file a registration statement within 10 days of having agreed to act as an agent of a foreign principal.”
Anna Massoglia, a researcher at the Center for Responsive Politics and an expert on FARA, told Forensic News that the timing of the filing is notable, given the recent law enforcement activity at the Deripaska-connected houses.
“The timing of the filing is certainly noteworthy since it comes so long after the activities reportedly took place and so shortly after the FBI searched property linked to Deripaska,” she said.
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