This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
A former Russian diplomat linked to a sanctions-evasion scandal involving one of the FBI’s top former counter-intelligence agents and a notorious Russian oligarch was set to be sentenced on charges of lying to U.S. law enforcement.
Sergei Shestakov’s sentencing, scheduled for October 16 in Manhattan federal court, closes a chapter in a case that both embarrassed the FBI and also shone a new spotlight on Oleg Deripaska, a Kremlin-connected billionaire who has long been on the FBI’s radar screen.
In final court filings, US prosecutors argued that Shestakov, 71, who worked as an authorized federal court interpreter after gaining US citizenship in 2013, was aware it was a crime to lie to FBI agents investigating retired FBI agent Charles McGonigal.
At the time of retirement in 2018, McGonigal was a top special agent at the FBI’s New York offices, overseeing counterintelligence investigations of Russian spies and oligarchs, among other things.
Prosecutors have asked for a relatively lenient sentence of six months in prison, plus a $5,000 fine.
Shestakov’s defense lawyer, meanwhile, asked that he being sentenced to time served: essentially, the brief time spent in federal custody in 2023 before being released on bail.
“His sense of fear, suspicion of the agents, and misplaced sense of loyalty overtook doing the right thing and being completely honest,” Rita Galvin wrote. “He will also be forever tied to a corrupt FBI Agent Charles McGonigal and he will live under a cloud of suspicion that he was a Russian spy (he was not) and a traitor.”
Glavin did not respond to emails seeking further comment.
An e-mail sent to the Manhattan federal prosecutors’ office handling the case received an automated response, saying public affairs operations had been suspended due to the US government shutdown.
At the center of the case are conversations that Shestakov had with Yevgeny Fokin, a Russian man and former diplomat whom he called an old friend from decades back.
Fokin, a top executive with Deripaska’s main holding company En+, was put under FBI surveillance beginning in July 2019, according to court records, and his electronic devices seized and searched as he entered the United States in August 2021.
His U.S. visa was revoked the following year at the behest of the FBI, which said he was affiliated with the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service.
In court papers, US prosecutors have also alleged Fokin was an “unindicted co-conspirator” to Shestakov and McGonigal.
Deripaska, who had his own visa blocked by the FBI in the 2000s, was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department in April 2018 for his ties to the Kremlin; He was indicted three years later in 2022 for allegedly plotting to arrange for his pregnant girlfriend to give birth in the United States so the child would be US citizen.
According to court filings, McGonigal was introduced to Fokin by Shestakov. McGonigal later went on to investigate another Russian oligarch who was a rival and competitor of Deripaska, as well as receive payments through a Cyprus company.
During the trial, defense lawyers claimed the work had been done on behalf of En+, not Deripaska, and cited testimony from Fokin. McGonigal also secured an internship for Fokin’s daughter at the New York Police Department.
At a November 21, 2021, meeting with FBI agents, Shestakov downplayed his relationship and McGonigal’s relationship with Fokin. Agents then seized his cell phone.
A week later, Shestakov filed as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, disclosing his work for Fokin and En+.
In January 2023, Shestakov was arrested at his Connecticut home, charged with five counts including lying about his relationship with Fokin, both to the FBI agents as well as on the Foreign Agents Act registration. This past June, after the Justice Department dropped four of the counts against him, he pleaded guilty.
Among those submitting letters to the court on behalf of Shestakov was Vladimir Gusinsky, a former Russian oligarch who employed both him and Fokin for years at his media company, Media Most.
Gusinsky, who also lived in Connecticut, has himself drawn scrutiny from the FBI, who have questioned him about his relationship with both men, as well as Deripaska. Gusinsky has not been charged with any wrongdoing.
McGonigal was sentenced to more than years in prison in December 2023 after pleading guilty after pleading guilty to money laundering and sanctions evasion charges.
McGonigal was also under scrutiny for his work for an Albanian-American businessman named Agron Nezaj. In February 2024, McGonigal was sentenced to more than two years in prison for receiving a $225,000 bribe.
