Charles McGonigal

Charles McGonigal (born June 23, 1968)[1] is a former special agent in charge of counterintelligence in the New York City field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. As of March 2023, he is under federal indictment on multiple charges.

Education

In 1990, McGonigal was awarded a B.B.A. from Kent State University,[2] later earning an M.A. in government from Johns Hopkins University in 2014.[3][4]

Career

Federal Bureau of Investigation

McGonigal joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1996. During his tenure at the New York Field Office, he was detailed to the TWA Flight 800 investigation, and later became one of the original case agents assigned to the Russian Illegals Program. In 2002, he was appointed as a supervisory special agent in the Counter-Espionage Section at FBI Headquarters. In 2006, he became the field supervisor of a counter-espionage squad at the Washington Field Office. McGonigal led the 2010 investigation into the release by WikiLeaks of over 200,000 State Department documents. He also led the investigation into Chelsea Manning's collaboration with WikiLeaks.[5][6]

In 2016, McGonigal was named Section Chief of the Cyber-Counterintelligence Coordination Section of the Counterintelligence Division. On October 4, 2016, it was announced that McGonigal was named "Special Agent in Charge of the Counterintelligence Division for the New York Field Office", appointed by James B. Comey.[3]

In March 2017, McGonigal expressed concern in a text message to then-FBI Deputy Assistant Director of the Counterintelligence Division Jennifer Boone that the surveillance warrant application on Carter Page could leak to the public after being presented to the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.[7]

McGonigal retired from the FBI in 2018.[8]

Private sector

In September 2018, McGonigal was hired as a vice-president at Brookfield Properties.[9]

In the spring of 2022, McGonigal was hired as the global head of security for Aman Resorts. McGonigal’s hiring was done through a very obscure process and raised many eyebrows there, according to Aman staffers, as the previous director of corporate security had been reassigned for no apparent reason, and McGonigal continued to be retained by the company even after news first surfaced that he was under investigation.[1][10][11]

Federal charges

In January 2023, McGonigal was arrested and federally indicted on charges of money laundering, making false statements in mandatory disclosures to the FBI, violating U.S. sanctions on Russia, and other counts for allegedly working with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who had allegedly tasked McGonigal with investigating a Deripaska rival. He was separately indicted for allegedly accepting payments amounting to more than US$225,000 from a former Albanian intelligence employee and acting to advance that person's interests. Days after his arrest, McGonigal was released on $500,000 bond after pleading not guilty.[8][12]

The FBI's investigation into McGonigal reportedly began sometime in 2018, after McGonigal was seen meeting with a Russian contact who was under surveillance by British authorities.[13]

In August 2023, McGonigal pleaded guilty to working with Deripaska.[14]

Personal life

McGonigal and his wife Pamela have two children. They have a home in Chevy Chase, Maryland. McGonigal's family did not accompany him during his counterintelligence tour in New York.[2] From around spring 2017 to late 2018, McGonigal reportedly maintained an extramarital relationship with Allison Guerriero, a resident of Florham Park, New Jersey who socialized with law enforcement officers.[15] During the affair, McGonigal and Guerriero frequently stayed at his apartment in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York.[2]

McGonigal kept framed portraits of himself shaking hands with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama as well as former Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj in his home office.[16]

References
  1. "Former senior FBI official accused of working for Russian he investigated". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved March 1, 2023.
  2. "Fast Living and Foreign Dealings: An F.B.I. Spy Hunter's Rise and Fall". August 14, 2023.
  3. "Charles McGonigal Named Special Agent in Charge of the Counterintelligence Division for the New York Field Office" (Press release). Federal Bureau of Investigation. October 4, 2016. Retrieved January 23, 2023.
  4. https://commencement.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/program-commencement-2015.pdf
  5. "Charles F. "Charlie" McGonigal, Special Agent in Charge, Counterintelligence Division" (PDF). New York Association of Mortgage Brokers. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 29, 2023. Retrieved January 26, 2023. Charles F. McGonigal began his career with the FBI in 1996. He first served the New York Office (NYO), investigating Russian counterintelligence matters andorganized crime cases. During his tenure in New York, he was detailed to the TWA Flight 800 investigation; was assigned to the Task Force investigating Department of Energy (DOE) Scientist Wen Ho Lee for espionage related activities; was deployed as a member of the NYO Rapid Deployment Team to DarEs Salam during the 1998 U.S. Embassy Bombings in Tanzania and Kenya; and was one of the original Case Agents on the New York Russian Illegals counterintelligence investigation taken down in 2010, captioned Ghost Stories. Mr. McGonigal closed out his tenure in the NYO in 2002 while working with his NYO colleagues through the tragic events of 9/11.
  6. Schwartz, Mattathias (September 15, 2022). "Exclusive: Former top FBI official involved in Trump-Russia investigation under scrutiny by federal prosecutors for his own ties to Russia". Insider. Retrieved January 24, 2022.
  7. "DOJ Docs Combined" (PDF). p. 98. Retrieved February 17, 2023. TS FISA briefed to HPSCI tomorrow. Any concerns this will leak? [...] Yes [I'm talking about Carter Page], and it will create a real monster for us if it is made public as CP will out our engagement in a NY minute....
  8. Weiser, Benjamin; Rashbaum, William K. (January 23, 2023). "Former Top F.B.I. Official in New York Charged in Money Laundering". The New York Times. Retrieved January 23, 2023.
  9. Schwartz, Mattathias. "Exclusive: Inside the extramarital affair and cash-fueled double life of Charles McGonigal, the FBI spy hunter charged with taking Russian money". Business Insider. Retrieved February 13, 2023.
  10. Lisa Fickenscher (January 26, 2023). "Ex-FBI official Charles McGonigal worked for more than one Russian billionaire". New York Post. Retrieved March 2, 2023. An Aman spokesperson confirmed the company hired McGonigal last year, but maintained that his tenure began just a few months ago. "Mr. McGonigal was hired by Aman Group in the fall of 2022 as global head of security, based on his qualifications and similar role in the real estate industry, as well as his two decades with the Federal Bureau of Investigation," the Aman rep said. The company also said McGonigal is no longer working for Aman Group, but it did not disclose when he left.
  11. Schwartz, Mattathias. "Exclusive: The FBI's McGonigal labyrinth". Business Insider. Retrieved March 1, 2023.
  12. Dienst, Jonathan; Winter, Tom (January 23, 2023). "Ex-FBI official arrested for alleged money laundering, Russia sanctions, taking money from former foreign agent". NBC News. Retrieved January 23, 2023.
  13. Schwartz, Mattathias (February 16, 2023). "Exclusive: British intel caught FBI spy chief secretly meeting a Russian in London". Insider. Retrieved March 2, 2023. In 2018, Charles McGonigal, the FBI's former New York spy chief, traveled to London where he met with a Russian contact who was under surveillance by British authorities, two US intelligence sources told Insider. The British were alarmed enough by the meeting to alert the FBI's legal attaché, who was stationed at the US Embassy. The FBI then used the surreptitious meeting as part of their basis to open an investigation into McGonigal, one of the two sources said.
  14. Schwartz, Mattathias; Cohen, Rebecca (August 15, 2023). "Disgraced former FBI agent Charles McGonigal pleads guilty to working with a sanctioned Russian oligarch". Business Insider.
  15. Schwartz, Matthathias (January 27, 2023). "Exclusive: Inside the extramarital affair and cash-fueled double life of Charles McGonigal, the FBI spy hunter charged with taking Russian money".
  16. "Rama and Haradinaj, on the wall of former FBI agent Charles McGonigal's office". February 20, 2023.
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