A US District Court judge sentenced former FBI special agent Charles F. McGonigal to 28 months in prison followed by a period of supervised release on Friday for an undisclosed receipt of $225,000 from an individual with ties to the Albanian government.

A federal grand jury indicted McGonigal in January 2023. The original nine-count indictment alleged that McGonigal had a legal duty to file an annual public financial disclosure report while in charge of the FBI New York Field Office. However, McGonigal purposefully concealed the $225,000 payment to hide the conflict between his FBI duties and private interests. Each original charge on the nine-count indictment carried a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment. McGonigal pled guilty in September 2023 for concealment of material facts for his undisclosed receipt from an individual who had business interests in Europe while McGonigal was supervising counterintelligence efforts. 

This is not McGonigal’s only corruption charge while serving in the FBI. Last year, a federal judge sentenced McGonigal to 50 months in prison and ordered him 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. In that case, the DOJ said that Oleg Deripaska, who has close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, gave McGonigal money to investigate a rival Russian oligarch. McGonigal pled guilty to doing so.

McGonigal’s actions have led some to reconsider how much security-related power and ability retirees from the national security workforce should have or be allowed to exercise in their official duties.