The scam was audacious: “[McGonigal] had access to the original files used in the blacklist of Russians from the U.S., they took them and changed the names with Albanian names … the FBI guy in Tirana, his partners, had papers that looked legit, the FBI logo, that they would present to businessmen around town who might be suspected of doing things that could get into blacklist from us. They would then set up a meeting with the FBI guy, usually in Vienna, where the frightened businessmen would be encouraged to pay the partners 1 to 5 million.”

This claim cannot be verified but I can attest that the scam — showing rich Albanians doctored FBI sanctions paperwork with their names right on them — is the same modus operandi which Albanian sources told me that McGonigal and his network attempted to blackmail them with. Note that the Kosovo allegation alleges the involvement of the FBI’s legal attache office in Tirana, which, if true, means that the bureau’s corruption problem is about more than McGonigal.

We now have multiple reports telling the same story: Charles McGonigal, while still serving with the FBI, indeed as one of its top officials, was shaking down Balkan businesspeople for millions of dollars in partnership with dirty local politicians. These accusations are either true or false. Since McGonigal has already been indicted by DOJ for corruption, it’s not difficult to believe he perpetrated even more of it than he stands accused of in court.