Russian oligarch tied to Kentucky's Braidy plant allegedly paid FBI official to investigate rivals

Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska, who is tied to Kentucky's Braidy Industries, allegedly paid an FBI official to investigate rivals. On Monday, the former FBI counterintelligence official has been charged in connection with efforts to assist Deripaska.

Charles McGonigal, who once headed the FBI's New York Counterintelligence Division and was involved in investigations involving the oligarch, is charged with conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions and money laundering.

McGonigal, who retired from the bureau in 2018, was arrested Saturday, along with Sergey Shestakov, a former Russian diplomat.

Background:US Senate report says Russian investor in Braidy Industries' mill is a proxy for the Kremlin

McGonigal and Shestakov are accused of initiating an investigation of a Deripaska rival last year in return for concealed payments from the oligarch.

Working with an agent for Deripaska, McGonigal and Shestakov sought to hide Deripaska’s involvement by using shell companies and forged signatures on contract documents. The shell companies were allegedly used to send and receive payments from Deripaska, federal prosecutors said.

In September, the Justice Department announced charges against the Deripaska, a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of using a web of shell companies to disguise millions of dollars in prohibited business transactions, including the $3 million sale of a California music studio in 2019.

In 2018, Deripaska was included in the Treasury Department enforcement notice as having been "investigated for money laundering, and ... accused of threatening the lives of business rivals, illegally wiretapping a government official, and taking part in extortion and racketeering."

While serving as an FBI official, federal prosecutors said, McGonigal had access to then-classified information that led to Treasury's 2018 sanctions against Deripaska.

A year later, McGonigal and Shestakov worked for Deripaska in an unsuccessful bid to have the U.S. sanctions against Deripaska lifted, officials said.

When FBI agents questioned Shestakov in November 2021 about the nature of the work with Deripaska’s agent, "Shestakov made false statements in a recorded interview," federal prosecutors said.

Shannon Hall contributed to this article.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Russian oligarch tied to KY's Braidy Industries paid Charles Deripaska: Feds say