The former head of counterintelligence for the FBI’s New York field office is expected to plead guilty to charges that he got paid to help try to the the US sanctions against Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska lifted, ABC News reports. Lawyers for Charles McGonigal entered a notice Saturday that a court appearance scheduled for Monday should be reclassified as a “plea proceeding,” although specific details of the deal were not released.
Having retired from the FBI in 2018, McGonigal reportedly took money from Deripaska to try to get the sanctions against Deripaska lifted, and he used FBI resources to get information on Deripaska’s rivals, which he transmitted to the Russian billionaire. McGonigal is also accused of accepting an undisclosed $225,000 payment from a former agent of the Albanian intelligence service who is now living in New Jersey.