As a pro-democracy activist who is highly concerned with foreign influence-peddling in the United States, I have been closely watching the prosecution of former FBI counterintelligence chief Charles McGonigal. As the Aug. 16 news article “Former senior FBI official pleads guilty to illegally assisting Putin ally” reported, Mr. McGonigal pleaded guilty to charges related to his work for the sanctioned Russian billionaire and Putin ally Oleg Deripaska and, according to Mr. McGonigal’s attorney, is in discussions about another plea deal around allegedly taking bribes while serving as counterintelligence chief of the FBI’s New York bureau.
The McGonigal case shines a critical light on a major loophole in the U.S. anti-money-laundering framework. Currently, when a senior foreign “political figure” — someone with high-level access to power, such as a senior government official or senior political campaign manager — makes deposits of unknown or suspicious origin into U.S. bank accounts or certain other financial institutions, banks have to report this suspicious activity to U.S. law enforcement. However, our laws don’t require such scrutiny of potentially suspicious financial transactions by domestic senior political figures such as Mr. McGonigal.
This is a growing problem, as we’re witnessing a significant increase in foreign-influence operations targeting senior political figures in the United States. It’s time for Congress to enact legislation that requires the same scrutiny of suspicious U.S. financial transactions for senior political figures, whether they’re U.S. citizens or not. Doing so will better protect our democracy against influence-peddling by foreign corrupt regimes and actors.
The writer is director of strategic initiatives and partnerships at Project on Government Oversight.
