US charges ex-FBI agent with violating Russia sanctions

A former top FBI official is facing criminal charges for allegedly trying to help a Russian oligarch get off a US sanctions list, prosecutors say.

Charles McGonigal was arrested alongside an ex-Russian diplomat on Saturday. The pair face money laundering and conspiracy charges.

Mr McGonigal also faces charges he took $225,000 (£181,612) in cash from a foreign agent while still in the FBI.

He is one of the highest-ranking FBI agents to ever be charged with a crime.

Mr McGonigal was arrested on Saturday after returning to JFK International Airport in New York from international travel, and on Monday entered a plea of not guilty at a federal courthouse in Manhattan.

According to federal prosecutors, the 54-year-old Mr McGonigal - who was in charge of FBI counterintelligence in New York before his retirement in 2018 - and former Russian diplomat Sergey Shestakov violated US sanctions by agreeing to provide services to Russian billionaire and industrialist Oleg Deripaska.