A former FBI special agent in charge of counterintelligence at the bureau's New York Field Office was charged and arrested over allegedly violating U.S. sanctions on a Russian oligarch.
“The Justice Department alleged Charles McGonigal, who retired from the FBI in 2018, conspired with another defendant to provide services to Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska in violation of U.S. sanctions imposed on the oligarch in 2018.
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| Charles McGonigal and his attorney Seth Ducharme leave Manhattan Federal Court |
McGonigal and the second defendant, Sergey Shestakov, a former Soviet and Russian diplomat who later interpreted Russian for U.S. courts and government offices, were charged with a total of five counts, including conspiring to violate and evade U.S. sanctions, conspiring to commit money laundering, and committing money laundering.
The Justice Department alleged that McGonigal and Shestakov in 2021 agreed to investigate one of Deripaska's rival Russian oligarchs in exchange for concealed payments from Deripaska.
The investigation was negotiated and agreed upon through electronic communications with an agent working on behalf of Deripaska, and the party used shell companies and a forged signature to create a contract that outlined the services and to receive the payments from Deripaska.
The department said both McGonigal and Shestakov were aware their actions violated U.S. sanctions because they had previously attempted to have the sanctions against Deripaska lifted.
Shestakov was also charged with making false statements in a recorded interview with FBI agents about his and McGonigal’s relationship with Deripaska’s agent, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison”. -Jacob Knutson, Axios
"A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody”. -Thomas Paine
As amusing as it is that an FBI official tasked with investigating Donald Trump for supposed ties to Russian collusion may have been conspiring with a Russian oligarch himself, it’s immensely disheartening that the nation’s top federal law enforcement agency funding an ongoing opposition research project conducted by one of the candidates in the midst of a presidential election has only further destroyed the faith in the liberal democratic system and its federal institutions.
I assume that this is nothing more than the Federal Bureau going after low-hanging fruit in a desperate attempt to preserve at least a modicum of legitimacy while simultaneously throwing a bone at the controlled opposition GOP to give off the appearance that their inquiry into the nefarious activities of the intelligence agency is uncontrived and above board.