A New York court sentenced a former FBI agent who worked for a sanctioned Russian oligarch to more than four years in prison.
A COURT IN NEW YORK sentenced former FBI agent Charles McGonigal, who worked for the sanctioned Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska, to 50 months in prison, as reported by news agency Reuters.
In addition to prison time, McGonigal will have to pay a $40,000 fine. He was found guilty of conspiracy to violate the sanctions.
McGonigal was accused of seeking to gather compromising information on his rival at Deripaska’s behest. During the trial, he admitted to acting on Deripaska’s instructions and receiving cash rewards through intermediaries.
A former CIA officer and the author of the Victor Caro series, Alex Finley, thinks this case is an example of corruption.
“This case demonstrates how Russian oligarchs co-opt individuals in their (the oligarchs’) corruption. Deripaska has done similar with Paul Manafort (Trump’s former campaign manager), now with McGonigal, and certainly with others along the way (and there are sure to be more in the future),” Alex Finley said in an emailed comment to sources close to Finland Today.
It is sad on an individual level, but also a societal one.
“One of the consequences of such cases is that we begin to lose faith in our institutions. If the former head of FBI counterintelligence who worked on Russia issues and should know better, is himself corrupted by Russia, why should Americans have any faith in their public servants? Cases like these serve to lower public trust in government institutions, which in turn hurts democratic efforts and aids the slide toward authoritarianism. Someone like McGonigal should have been fighting corruption, not participating in it,” Finley wrote.
