Ex-FBI Spy Catcher Charles McGonigal Pleads Guilty to Taking $225,000 from Albanian Intel Officer

The FBI’s former director of counterintelligence in New York, Charles McGonigal, pleaded guilty in a Washington federal court to secretly taking $225,000 from former Albanian intelligence officer Agron Nezaj.

Nezaj was previously an intelligence agent that McGonigal, 55, had helped in overseas business dealings, the New York Times reports.

Nezaj, who is currently an American citizen residing in New Jersey, became an informant for the FBI’s investigation into McGonigal, according to court documents. 

McGonigal faced a nine-count indictment charging him with failing to report contacts with foreign officials, cash payments he received, and trips he took to Europe with Nezaj in 2017 and 2018 that he and the FBI did not pay for. 

As part of a plea deal, McGonigal only pleaded guilty to one of those charges in the US District Court of the District of Columbia in Washington on Friday. The deal means that McGonigal’s case will not go to trial.

McGonigal apologized to the court for his actions, the Voice of America reported.

“Before I left the FBI in September 2018, I was planning to launch a security consulting business with a friend. I knew that my government contacts and international relationships might be useful to me when I later launched the business,” McGonigal explained in court to District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly.

“I did not disclose an approximately $225,000 loan I received from my friend and prospective business partner in the US for several meetings I attended with foreign nationals,” McGonigal added.

“These meetings were an effort to develop potential business relationships for my future consulting business. The loan was intended to help start the business,” he insisted.

McGonigal’s guilty plea is the second time in recent months that he has admitted to criminal wrongdoing.

In August, he pleaded guilty in a New York federal court to one count of conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and to one count of money laundering. 

Those charges stemmed from illegal work McGonigal did for sanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who has been called Russian President Vladimir Putin's "favorite industrialist."

McGonigal’s guilty plea for this case also followed a plea deal.

Because of the double plea deals, McGonigal only faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison in both cases. The judges could give him less time and allow him to serve sentences in the cases concurrently.

McGonigal’s sentencing for his New York case is set for Dec. 14. His sentencing for the Washington D.C. case is set for Feb. 16, 2024.