Ex-FBI official sentenced to more than two years for hiding payments

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A former FBI official was sentenced to more than two years in prison on Friday for hiding $225,000 in payments from a former Albanian intelligence officer while serving in a prominent role at the agency, the Justice Department said.

Charles McGonigal, 55, was sentenced to 28 months in prison after pleading guilty to concealing the payments while he oversaw counterintelligence and national-security matters as the top agent in the FBI's New York office between 2017 and 2019.

It is the second prison sentence for McGonigal, who was sentenced to more than four years in December for working for Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch under U.S. sanctions whom prosecutors have called President Vladimir Putin's "henchman."

According to the Justice Department, McGonigal did not tell the FBI that he was paid by the Albanian official and traveled abroad with him on private business.

His prison sentence will start once he completes his sentence for working for Deripaska, the Justice Department said.

(Reporting by Andy Sullivan in Washington; Editing by Matthew Lewis)