Ex-FBI official arrested over ties to sanctioned Russian oligarch

A former high-ranking FBI official has been arrested over his ties to a sanctioned Russian oligarch.

Charles McGonigal, a former special agent in charge of counterintelligence in the FBI’s New York Field Office, was arrested Saturday upon arriving at JFK Airport from a trip to Sri Lanka and charged with violating U.S. sanctions by trying to get Oleg Deripaska off the sanctions list, law enforcement sources told ABC News.

The 54-year-old McGonigal, who retired in 2018, is one of the highest-ranking former FBI officials ever charged with a crime.

Sergey Shestakov, a court interpreter who also worked with Deripaska was charged in the case.

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McGonigal and Shestakov allegedly agreed in 2021 to investigate another Russian oligarch and the receiving of payments through shell companies and forging signatures to conceal the source as Deripaska.

They were each charged with money laundering and violating sanctions, and each of the four counts they face carry possible 20-year prison terms.