Charles McGonigal – a former FBI official who was arrested and charged by US authorities over his ties to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska – has quietly spent the last yr working for one other Russian-born billionaire, The Post has learned.
Aman Resorts, a five-star hotel chain owned by Vladislav Doronin, a martial arts-trained real estate magnate who has been stigmatized “Russia’s Response to Donald Trump” – hired McGonigal within the spring of 2022 for a high-paying job as director of security at 34 Aman locations around the globe, in keeping with sources with direct knowledge of the situation.
Indeed, sources speculated that when McGonigal was arrested at JFK airport on Saturday, he was coming back from a business trip to Sri Lanka, where Aman runs two posh hotels.
Sources say McGonigal worked for Aman in Latest York, where the firm opened its first property in August at Fifth Avenue and 57th Street in the previous Crown Constructing, quickly gaining a status as the costliest property within the Big Apple. room rates start at $2,400 per night.
Aman’s spokesman confirmed that the corporate hired McGonigal last yr, but maintained that his tenure began only a couple of months ago.
“Mr. McGonigal was hired by Aman Group in Fall 2022 as Global Head of Compliance.
The corporate also said McGonigal now not works for Aman Group, but didn’t disclose when he left.
A former Aman worker who left the hotel group said the office culture is more Russian than American and might be “demanding” and “inconvenient”.
The corporate said, “The Aman Group was founded 35 years ago and has built its own distinctive culture, enriched by a world presence in more than 20 countries, reflecting the contributions and collaboration of a various, international workforce of 6,500 employees worldwide.”
In September, Business Insider reported that federal prosecutors are looking into McGonigal’s ties to Deripaska, a Russian billionaire who has been sanctioned by the US and has allegedly asked McGonigal to lift the sanctions.
“Given his past, we thought it was very strange that he was brought in,” and that McGonigal stayed after reports emerged that he was under investigation, one former Aman worker said.
“The method was very unclear,” one other source added. In keeping with the source, Aman’s corporate security director “was on site” but was reassigned and “no clear reasons got.” “Then Charlie showed up.
After McGonigal left the FBI in 2018 – where he was the top of counterintelligence on the agency’s Latest York office and led the Trump “Russiagate” investigation into whether Russia interfered within the 2016 presidential election – McGonigal was hired as senior vice chairman of world security in real estate giant Brookfield Properties.
He left that position in January 2022, Brookfield said. McGonigal – whose employment at Aman caused surprise amongst hotel staff, in keeping with sources – told Aman employees he left Brookfield for “personal reasons”, a source near the situation told The Post.
Former CIA, FBI and NSA officials are routinely hired by large corporations which can be targeted by espionage and cyber threats, said Anthony Roman, president of risk management firm Roman & Associates.
“It’s a simple and regular stop for these officials,” said Roman.
McGonigal’s attorney, Seth DuCharme, didn’t reply to the comment. The Ministry of Justice also didn’t respond.
On Monday, McGonigal, 54, was charged with money laundering and violating US sanctions law. The Justice Department says McGonigal, together with former Russian diplomat turned federal court interpreter Sergei Shestakov, worked for Deripaska, an aluminum magnate who was placed under U.S. sanctions in 2018.
During his tenure on the FBI, McGonigal oversaw investigations of oligarchs, including Deripaska, who was sanctioned by america for allegedly acting on behalf of the Russian government within the energy sector. The federal government says Deripaska hired the pair to remove him from the sanctions list and investigate one of his rival oligarchs by paying them through shell corporations.
McGonigal pleaded not guilty and was released on $500,000 bail.
Experts say Doronin’s links to McGonigal are sure to boost more questions as prosecutors investigate his relationship with Russia.
“Doronin will not be similar to Deripaska, who’s under sanctions,” said Louise Shelley, founder and executive director of Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center and chair of the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University.
“But McGonigal was on the payroll of a strong Russian,” added Shelley, referring to the undeniable fact that McGonigal was on Aman’s payroll. “It’s actually a cushty job that pays terribly. It is a superb job in retirement, however it makes him more connected to the Russian elite around the globe.”
Born within the Soviet Union, 60-year-old Doronin renounced his Russian citizenship in 1986. Now a citizen of Switzerland and Sweden, he spoke out against the war in Ukraine. It bought Aman in 2014 and moved its headquarters to Sweden.
Doronin dated supermodel Naomi Campbell for several years before his current partner, Kristina Romanova, and former Russian model who’s the director of the corporate Aman. He’s an admirer of the martial arts of Qigong, reportedly showing off his ability to smash marble slabs along with his head and break picket spears with metal suggestions on the throat, in keeping with Wikipedia.
Doronin, who also owns development company OKO Group, said in media interviews that he ended his cooperation with Russia in 2014 when he sold his stake in Moscow-based real estate company Capital Group.
last yr RealDeal reported court documents showed that he had shares in a separate Moscow company as late as 2022, when he transferred ownership to his mother, who still lives in Russia. Doronin replied that the corporate had only “legacy assets” that were being slowly liquidated, and that he had not been involved in any development activity since 2014.
Last yr, Doronin sued the Aspen Times for defamation, claiming the publication had falsely portrayed him as a Russian “oligarch” in a series of articles about land he had purchased in the realm.
The lawsuit was settled and The Aspen Times editor Andrew Travers was fired. traverses wrote the article in The Atlantic in August a couple of newspaper flop with Doronin under the headline “End Times in Aspen: How one can Kill a Newspaper”.
In an announcement regarding the lawsuit, Aman’s spokesperson said, “It was ultimately stated by the newspaper itself [the articles] didn’t meet its “standards of accuracy, fairness and objectivity”. Similarly, The Aspen Times regretted the libels Mr. Doronin said were libelous, and retracted and corrected several articles.”
Jennifer Gould contributed to reporting.