A new IG report reveals striking new details about the corrupt behavior of Charles McGonigal.
A disgraced former FBI agent tipped off an employee of a Chinese-company tied to Hunter Biden about an investigation into the firm, a new watchdog report reveals.
Charles McGonigal, former special agent in charge of the FBI Counterintelligence Division in New York, told a businessman employed by Chinese infrastructure conglomerate CEFC about the FBI’s investigation into the company, the Justice Department’s inspector general said in a watchdog report on McGonigal’s activities.
From October 2016 to September 2018, McGonigal oversaw the FBI investigation into CEFC and businessman Patrick Ho, an executive at its nonprofit arm and a business associate of Hunter Biden’s who was later convicted in Manhattan on bribery charges. Ho was implicated in a scheme to bribe officials from Chad and Uganda into awarding contracts to CEFC.
A person listed in McGonigal’s Washington, D.C., indictment met with FBI agents in December 2021 and October 2022 and informed the bureau that McGonigal had leaked details of the FBI’s investigation to CEFC before Ho’s arrest, according to the inspector general report.
The unnamed person disclosed that “on multiple occasions before Ho’s arrest, McGonigal leaked confidential information about the CEFC investigation to Person B, which Person B thereafter provided to Ho and the CEFC China Chairman,” the report says.
The Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office weighed obstruction of justice charges against McGonigal for the leak but chose not to pursue them. McGonigal was later indicted in New York on money laundering charges for receiving payments from sanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.
McGonigal faced separate charges in D.C. for taking funds from an Albanian national and failing to disclose meetings with that person’s business associate. McGonigal was given a 50 month prison sentence for the New York charges and a 28 month sentence in D.C. to be covered by the other prison sentence.
The “Person B” referred to in the inspector general report is a former Albanian government official and employee of CEFC. The individual was an international businessman and consultant who McGonigal sought an introduction to in April 2017.
The businessman was not a target of the FBI’s investigation at the time, but the case team did have concerns about him due to his ties to Ho. McGonigal met with the person in April 2017 despite being told not to. Afterwards, McGonigal had several meetings and calls with the person that he did not disclose to the FBI.
McGonigal first leaked to the businessman in June 2017 during a trip in Florida he took with his future Albanian business partner and a former FBI agent. The businessman told Ho about the investigation the next day when they met in Washington, D.C. where Ho attended a conference.
The businessman and McGonigal met in New York several times afterwards. They discussed CEFC and the chairman’s actions. In November 2017, McGonigal leaked information to the businessman for a second time. McGonigal told the associate something along the lines of “we are ready for them” in reference to the FBI’s investigation into CEFC. The leak happened on a phone call about whether McGonigal would be attending an upcoming CEFC event in New York. Ho was arrested upon arrival to New York to attend the CEFC event.
Days earlier, James Biden attempted to figure out whether there was an active arrest warrant for Ho. A retired Secret Service agent told the FBI that James Biden reached out to him in November 2017 to see if he could determine whether there was a warrant out for Ho’s arrest. The agent and another former Secret Service agent incorrectly concluded that Ho specifically did not have an active warrant.
James Biden disclosed his communications with the Secret Service agent when he testified before the House Oversight Committee last year. The FBI case team concluded that Ho chose to come back to the U.S. after Biden or another individual provided reassurances.
Upon his arrest, Ho sought assistance from the Bidens in his time of need. Ho paid Hunter Biden a $1 million retainer for legal work but nothing ever came of it, according to IRS whistleblower Joseph Ziegler, an agent who spent years on the Hunter Biden tax case before coming forward with allegations of misconduct from federal investigators. Last year, Ho threatened to sue the younger Biden for his $1 million back but it unclear if anything came of it.
When the inspector general interviewed McGonigal, he initially downplayed his relationship with Ho and denied having substantive conversations about CEFC. His attitude changed when shown text messages to the contrary. Eventually, McGonigal acknowledged the full extent of his activities and disclosed that he leaked information about the FBI’s plan to arrest CEFC associates.
McGonigal admitted his motivation was “bravado” and said he did not leak the information to harm the investigation. Neither of the Bidens were implicated in the FBI investigation of CEFC and Ho.
Hunter Biden and his uncle James Biden were in business with CEFC for the better part of three years. In early 2017, CEFC wired $3 million to Hunter Biden’s business partner Rob Walker and a third of the funds went to Biden, bank records show. The payment came after Hunter Biden and his business partners developed a business relationship with CEFC during his father Joe’s vice presidency, which concluded in January 2017.
During the impeachment inquiry into then-President Joe Biden, Hunter and James Biden both denied that Joe Biden had any involvement in their business dealings. However, Hunter did confirm Joe Biden met and spoke to his business partners on multiple occasions, including an infamous 2017 meeting with business partner-turned-critic Tony Bobulinski.
The Bidens dismissed Bobulinski’s testimony as motivated by their failed business relationship. Bobulinski was involved with negotiating a business venture with CEFC that did not pan out and led to the one Hunter and James subsequently launched with the company.
In late 2017, Hunter and James Biden explored a joint venture with CEFC known as Hudson West III. CEFC poured $5 million into the account and explored U.S. energy deals, but the venture ultimately fell apart when Ho and other company executives faced legal troubles. A small portion of those funds ended up in Joe Biden’s bank account after a string of transactions involving the Bidens withdrawing money and putting it into various bank accounts.
Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter in the final weeks of his presidency for tax and gun crimes. His son’s business dealings and misbehavior were a major scandal for the final two years of the Biden administration.
Ziegler and fellow whistleblower Gary Shapley are now senior advisors at the Trump administration’s Treasury Department. They were given the roles after facing retribution from the IRS for coming forward.