Retired FBI Special Agent in Charge Sentenced for Concealing Information from the Federal Bureau of Investigation

            WASHINGTON – Charles F. McGonigal, 55, a former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Office, was sentenced today to 28 months in prison for his undisclosed receipt of $225,000 in cash from an individual with ties to the Albanian government while McGonigal was supervising counterintelligence investigations.  

            The sentence was announced by U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves; FBI Assistant Director in Charge Donald Alway of the Los Angeles Field Office; and FBI Assistant Director in Charge David Sundberg of the Washington Field Office.

            In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ordered McGonigal to serve three years of supervised release. McGonigal pleaded guilty on September 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 (SAC) of the FBI’s 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 January 21, 2023, at J.F.K. International Airport in New York. He was simultaneously indicted on charges by DDC and 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.

            Today’s sentence of 28 months will be served consecutively with McGonigal’s previous sentence of 50 months out of the Southern District of New York.

            This case is being investigated by the FBI’s Los Angeles and Washington Field Offices.

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

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