Retired FBI Special Agent Pleads Guilty to Concealing Information from the Federal Bureau of Investigation ...Admits receiving $225,000 cash payment

By Adetokunbo FAKEYE 

WASHINGTON - A former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Office, Charles F. McGonigal, 55, on Friday, 22nd September, 2023 pleaded guilty to concealment of material facts for his undisclosed receipt of $225,000 in cash from an individual who had business interests in Europe while he was supervising counterintelligence efforts. 

As contained in a statement obtained from Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI, the plea, announced by U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves, Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office Donald Alway, and Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office David Sundberg, was accepted by U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who scheduled sentencing for February 16, 2024.

According to the statement, papers filed with the Court, from August 2017, and continuing through his retirement from the FBI in September 2018, 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, is said, received at least $225,000 in cash from the individual and traveled abroad with the individual and met with foreign nationals. 

"The individual later served as an FBI source in a criminal investigation involving foreign political lobbying over which McGonigal had official supervisory responsibility", FBI stated.

The charge carries a statutory maximum sentence of five years in prison. 

The maximum statutory sentence for federal offenses is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes. 

The court will determine the actual sentence based on the advisory Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

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