Ex-FBI agent accused of working for Deripaska pleads not guilty

Former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officer Charles McGonigal, who was arrested on charges of working for Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska, pleaded not guilty, REUTERS and CNN report.

McGonigal was arrested in New York the day before, January 23. He was charged with violating US sanctions, conspiracy and money laundering for working for Deripaska in 2021, the channel writes. According to the prosecution, the ex-FBI agent colluded with former Russian diplomat Sergei Shestakov in order to violate sanctions and launder funds. Shestakov is also accused of giving false evidence.

The United States included Deripaska and related companies UC Rusal, En +, Eurosibenergo in the sanctions list in April 2018, and later the sanctions were lifted from the companies. The indictment says that McGonigal and Shestakov in 2019 tried to arrange for Deripaska himself to be removed from the sanctions list, and in 2021 they launched an investigation against one of his competitors. They carried it out on the order of the entrepreneur and received “hidden payments” for this, according to the US Department of Justice.

In the United States, the ex-FBI agent was accused of working for Deripaska and violating sanctions Politics

FBI Assistant DIRECTOR Michael Driscoll said both detainees acted on Deripaska's behalf and "fraudulently used an American organization to cover up their activities in violation of US law."

ABC News, citing information from the indictment, noted that after leaving the FBI, McGonigal, according to the US authorities, worked for Deripaska through a law firm and received $ 25 thousand for this. Later, he began working directly for the entrepreneur - he was paid $ 51 thousand at a time , and then another $41,790 for three months, the material says.

McGonigal, 54, was a counterintelligence special agent with the FBI's New York office until he retired in 2018. He participated in investigations against "Russian oligarchs", including against Deripaska.

Read on RBC Pro Lumpens of the 21st century: why the crisis will eat the middle class in RUSSIA There is a wave of layoffs all over the world. But now people are being fired in a new way How to develop important skills that a child is not taught in school Russia - the third in terms of calculations in yuan. How deliveries and payments have changed