Charles McGonigal, a former FBI agent who worked on the investigation into Trump-Russian collusion, was detained on Saturday due to his connections to the Russian government.
His connections to Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska, who the US has sanctioned and who was criminally accused of breaking those sanctions last year, according to CBS.
“The FBI is committed to the enforcement of economic sanctions designed to protect the United States and our allies, especially against hostile activities of a foreign government and its actors,” said Michael Driscoll, an assistant director of the FBI, in a statement.
“Russian oligarchs like Oleg Deripaska perform global malign influence on behalf of the Kremlin and are associated with acts of bribery, extortion, and violence,” Driscoll said. “As alleged, Mr. McGonigal and Mr. Shestakov, both U.S. citizens, acted on behalf of Deripaska and fraudulently used a U.S. entity to obscure their activity in violation of U.S. sanctions. After sanctions are imposed, they must be enforced equally against all U.S. citizens in order to be successful. There are no exceptions for anyone, including a former FBI official like Mr. McGonigal.”
