For the Keks
Former Top F.B.I. Official in New York Charged in Money Laundering
Prosecutors say Charles McGonigal, who was chief of counterintelligence in the city, took payments from Oleg Deripaska to investigate a rival Russian oligarch.
A former high-level F.B.I. official has been indicted on charges that he conspired to violate U.S. sanctions on Russia by taking secret payments from a Russian oligarch, Oleg V. Deripaska, in return for investigating a rival oligarch, the authorities said on Monday.
The former official, Charles McGonigal, who had been the special agent in charge of the F.B.I.’s counterintelligence division in New York before he retired in 2018, had supervised and participated in investigations of Russian oligarchs, including Mr. Deripaska, the government said.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan said Mr. McGonigal, 54, violated U.S. sanctions by agreeing to help Mr. Deripaska, who himself was indicted last year on sanctions charges.
Mr. Deripaska, an aluminum magnate with ties to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, was a client of Paul Manafort, who for several months in 2016 served as Donald J. Trump’s campaign chairman and in 2018 was convicted of financial fraud and other crimes.