A former Russian diplomat, Sergey Shestakov, has been sentenced to two months in prison for lying to U.S. authorities in connection with a sanctions-evasion case involving former FBI agent Charles McGonigal and Kremlin-linked oligarch Oleg Deripaska.
Shestakov admitted to misleading the FBI about his ties to Yevgeny Fokin, a former Russian diplomat and executive at Deripaska’s company En+, during a federal investigation. McGonigal, once a top counterintelligence officer at the FBI’s New York office, had already been sentenced to over two years in prison for money laundering and violating U.S. sanctions tied to Deripaska and other foreign figures.
Judge Jed Rakoff of the U.S. District Court ordered Shestakov to serve two months in prison, followed by two years of supervised release, and to pay a $100 fine — a lighter sentence than prosecutors had requested. Shestakov, who became a U.S. citizen in 2013 and worked as a federal court interpreter, will begin serving his sentence in February.
The case sheds light on the murky web of relationships connecting former U.S. intelligence officials, Russian diplomats, and oligarchs. According to court documents, Shestakov introduced McGonigal to Fokin, who was under FBI surveillance from 2019 and suspected of links to Russian intelligence.
Deripaska has been under U.S. sanctions since 2018 for his ties to the Kremlin. Prosecutors allege that McGonigal and Shestakov worked to lift those sanctions, while McGonigal also took payments via offshore accounts.
McGonigal was also implicated in a separate case involving Albanian-American businessman Agron Nezaj, for which he received an additional two-year sentence in 2024 after accepting $225,000 in bribes.
Shestakov’s attorney, Rita Glavin, described her client as “a man who made a serious mistake out of fear and misplaced loyalty,” emphasizing that he has been permanently stigmatized by his association with McGonigal.
Key Context
- Shestakov’s case marks the final chapter in a scandal that embarrassed the FBI and reignited scrutiny of Deripaska’s global network.
- The case also drew in former Russian media mogul Vladimir Gusinsky, who wrote a letter to the court on Shestakov’s behalf, though he was not charged with any wrongdoing.
