WASHINGTON — A former FBI special agent who once led a counterintelligence unit in New York was sentenced Friday to more than two years in prison for the crime. lying to investigators About receiving thousands of dollars from a businessman connected to the Albanian government.
Charles McGonigal According to the information released by the Department of Justice, he was sentenced to 28 months in prison and three years of supervised release for receiving 225,000 US dollars from a former foreign security officer and a businessman with business interests in foreign countries. news release.
Prosecutors had recommended a 30-month sentence, and in a sentencing letter, McGonigal said he had “taken great pains to abuse public trust, conceal his conduct and repeatedly line his own pockets”.
McGonigal’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday night.
McGonigal pleaded guilty last year to concealing material facts stemming from the undisclosed payment, according to court documents. This lawsuit in Washington came after McGonigal previously convicted More than four years in prison by a federal judge in New York for attempting to violate US sanctions by providing information to a Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.
The two prison terms will run consecutively for a total of six and a half years.
Before retiring in 2018, McGonigal was a special agent in charge of counterintelligence and national security matters in New York. He was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport in January 2023, the Justice Department said.
In a statement to the court last month, McGonigal expressed regret for his actions and said he “minimized everything I did in honor of my service to the United States government.”
Daniel Barnes reported from Washington, D.C., and Zoe Richards reported from New York.