Retired FBI Special Agent in Charge Sentenced for Concealing Information from the FBI

Charles F. McGonigal, 55, a former FBI Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Office, was sentenced today to 28 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for his undisclosed receipt of $225,000 in cash from an individual with ties to the Albanian government while McGonigal was supervising counterintelligence investigations. 

McGonigal pleaded guilty on Sept. 22, 2023, to one count of concealing material facts. In imposing the sentence, the court found that McGonigal’s conduct involved substantial interference with the administration of justice. 

According to papers filed with the court, McGonigal was responsible for overseeing counterintelligence and national security matters when he served as Special Agent in Charge of the FBI New York Field Office from August 2017 through his retirement from the FBI in September 2018. During this time, McGonigal concealed from the FBI the nature of his relationship with a former foreign security officer and businessperson who had ongoing business interests in foreign countries and before foreign governments. Specifically, McGonigal hid from the FBI that he received at least $225,000 in cash from the individual and traveled abroad with him and met with foreign nationals, in-part to advance their private business interests. 

The FBI arrested McGonigal on Jan. 21, 2023, at J.F.K. International Airport in New York. He was simultaneously indicted on charges by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices for the District of Columbia and the Southern District of New York. In December 2023, McGonigal was sentenced to 50 months in prison and ordered to pay a $40,000 fine for conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and to commit money laundering in an unrelated case being prosecuted in the Southern District of New York.

Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves for the District of Columbia, Assistant Director in Charge Donald Alway of the Los Angeles Field Office and Assistant Director in Charge David Sundberg of the FBI Washington Field Office made the announcement.

The FBI Los Angeles and Washington Field Offices investigated the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Elizabeth Aloi and Stuart D. Allen and former Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Friedman for the District of Columbia prosecuted the case, with assistance from Deputy Chief Evan N. Turgeon of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section and the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs.