By Daniel Barnes and Zoë Richards —
NBC News
A former FBI special agent who once headed a counterintelligence division in New York was sentenced Friday to more than two years in prison in connection with lying to investigators about receiving thousands of dollars from a businessman linked to the Albanian government.
Charles McGonigal was sentenced to 28 months in prison, as well as three years of supervised release, in connection with receiving $225,000 from a former foreign security official and businessman with business interests in foreign countries, the Department of Justice said in a news release. .
Former FBI agent Charles McGonigal arrives at Manhattan Federal Court in New York, on February 9, 2023.Yuki Iwamura / AFP - Getty Images file
Prosecutors had recommended 30 months in prison, saying in a sentencing memorandum that McGonigal “went out of his way to abuse the public trust, conceal his conduct, and line his own pockets, on multiple occasions.”
A lawyer for McGonigal did not immediately respond Friday night to a request for comment.
[Red flags and missing clues: how a US diplomat was able to spy for Cuba for decades without being caught]
McGonigal pleaded guilty last year to one count of concealment of material facts arising from the undisclosed payment, according to court documents.
That statement, in Washington, D.C., came after McGonigal was earlier sentenced to more than four years in prison by a federal judge in New York for conspiring to violate US sanctions by providing information to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.
The two prison sentences will run consecutively,
for a total of six and a half years.
McGonigal was a special agent in charge of a counterintelligence and national security matter in New York before his retirement in 2018. He was arrested in January 2023 at John F. Kennedy International Airport, the Justice Department explained.
In a statement filed in court last month, McGonigal expressed regret for his actions, which he said “minimized everything I have done in honor of my service to the United States Government.”