Ex-FBI official sentenced to over 2 years in prison for concealing payment from Albanian businessman

WASHINGTON (AP) — A former high-ranking FBI counterintelligence official was sentenced on Friday to more than two years in prison for taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash from a businessman with ties to the Albanian government — and trying to conceal their corrupt financial relationship.

Charles McGonigal, 55, supervised national security operations for the FBI in New York for nearly two years before his retirement in 2018. He appeared to advance Albanian interests in the U.S. after he asked for and received roughly $225,000 in 2017 from a man who had worked for an Albanian intelligence agency, prosecutors said.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly sentenced McGonigal to two years and four months in prison for the case brought in Washington, D.C. She ordered him to serve it consecutively to a 50-month prison sentence for a separate case in New York, so he is facing a total of six years and six months when he reports to prison next month.

McGonigal expressed remorse and sorrow for what he called “mistakes,” saying he betrayed the confidence and trust of his loved ones.

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