Ex-FBI counterintelligence official gets over 4 years in prison for aiding Russian oligarch
By LARRY NEUMEISTER
Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — A former FBI counterintelligence official has been ordered to spend over four years in prison for violating sanctions on Russia by going to work for a Russian oligarch seeking dirt on a wealthy rival. Charles McGonigal was sentenced Thursday in Manhattan federal court. Judge Jennifer H. Rearden imposed the sentence of four years and two months after a prosecutor cast McGonigal’s crime as a greedy money-grab that leveraged the knowledge he gained in his FBI career to cozy up to a notorious Russian oligarch, billionaire industrialist Oleg Deripaska. Deripaska has been under U.S. sanctions since 2018 for reasons related to Russia’s occupation of Crimea.