One of the highest-ranking FBI agents to ever face criminal charges was sentenced to over four years in prison on Thursday for secretly colluding with a Russian oligarch.
Charles McGonigal, a former counterintelligence leader in the FBI's New York field office, pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge. McGonigal's lawyers had asked for no prison time, but the judge came down harshly on the former FBI bigwig.
Oleg Deripaska who is sanctioned by the US was using McGonigal to dig up info on a business rival
"McGonigal knew full well that Deripaska was sanctioned," prosecutors said in their sentencing memorandum. "McGonigal also cannot claim that he was unaware that he was selling his services to a scoundrel working against America's interests."
Despite that knowledge, they said McGonigal sought to gather derogatory information about a rival oligarch, Vladimir Potanin, and Potanin's interest in a corporation that he and Deripaska were vying to control.
Prosecutors cast it as a serious crime that deserved a serious punishment.
I didn't know this was coming out today but like two days ago I learned something about Oleg Deripaska I didn't know. He was a winner of what they call Aluminum Wars in Russia. Control of the Russian Aluminum industry involved gangsters and hitmen and murders.
Deripaska was marred to Boris's Yeltsin #1 guy's daughter. The #1 guy then married Yeltsin's daughter. So Derispaska was like Yeltsin grandson....
which bought him a lot of political protection
Oleg Deripaska who is sanctioned by the US was using McGonigal to dig up info on a business rival
I didn't know this was coming out today but like two days ago I learned something about Oleg Deripaska I didn't know. He was a winner of what they call Aluminum Wars in Russia. Control of the Russian Aluminum industry involved gangsters and hitmen and murders.
This story came out two days ago Siberian Ex-Lawmaker, Aluminum Magnate Jailed 12 Years for Murder – Interfax https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/12/11/siberian-ex-lawmaker-aluminum-magnate-jailed-12-years-for-murder-interfax-a83377
"Someone was getting murdered every three days." https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/abramovich-tells-of-role-in-aluminium-wars-6256950.html
Deripaska was marred to Boris's Yeltsin #1 guy's daughter. The #1 guy then married Yeltsin's daughter. So Derispaska was like Yeltsin grandson.... which bought him a lot of political protection