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Former FBI official sentenced to two years in prison for hiding money he received from Albanian intelligence officer

Charles McGonigal pleaded guilty in September 2023 to accepting $225,000 he received from a businessman with ties to the Albanian government.

Captura de pantalla de un vídeo de New York Post hablando sobre Charles McGonigal, el exfuncionario del FBI condenado a más de dos años de prisión por su relación con la inteligencia albanesa.

(YouTube: New York Post)

Published by
Rosana Rábago Sainz

Charles McGonigal, former FBI official, was sentenced this Friday to more than two years in prison for hiding money he received from Albanian intelligence official. Specifically, the former agent was accused of keeping $225,000 that he received from a businessman with ties to the Albanian government. He pleaded guilty to the crime in September 2023 and was sentenced to 28 months in jail.

According to USA Today, McGonigal oversaw counterintelligence and national security operations at the same time he hid his relationship with the businessman from the FBI. In fact, the former official even traveled with the businessman and met with Albanian officials for his own business interests. He later told District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly that he deeply regretted his actions.

"For the rest of my life, I will be fighting to regain that trust and become a better person," McGonigal said just before hearing his sentence. "Unfortunately, it doesn’t repair the damage," the judge replied after ensuring that his remorse seemed real but that he had "lost his moral compass" at the end of his career.

McGonigal, indicted for the second time in a few months for his activity in the FBI

It is not the only time that former FBI official Charles McGonigal has been convicted of a crime. The Washington Examiner reported that this is his second sentence in two months. In December he was sentenced to just over four years in prison for collaborating with a sanctioned Russian oligarch. He was accused of money laundering and violating sanctions. He pleaded guilty last August and paid a fine of $40,000 and lost the $17,500 payment.

Both sentences will be served consecutively. Once McGonigal completes the four years, he must remain in prison for another two years to complete the sentence for this last case.

This sentence wasn’t easy. CBS News obtained access to a document that showed that prosecutors were aware of the multiple investigations in which McGonigal was involved. The process was long and they had to investigate possible other matters:

The defendant worked on some of the most sensitive and significant matters handled by the FBI. His lack of credibility, as revealed by his conduct underlying his offense of conviction, could jeopardize them all. The resulting internal review has been a large undertaking, requiring an unnecessary expenditure of substantial governmental resources.
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