NEW YORK

A former top FBI counterintelligence official was sentenced to 50 months in prison on Thursday for working with a Russian oligarch. 

Charles McGonigal, 55, pleaded guilty in August to one count of conspiracy to violate US sanctions and money laundering for working for Oleg Deripaska, an oligarch and close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"I have committed a felony, and as a former FBI special agent, it causes me extreme mental, emotional and physical pain," McGonigal told the judge, asking for a second chance ahead of his sentencing.

The judge ordered McGonigal to surrender to authorities for his prison sentence on Feb. 26.

During his 22-year career, McGonigal worked as a special agent in charge of the counterintelligence division for the FBI’s New York field office for two years until he retired from the bureau in 2018.