Convicted FBI agent tipped off Hunter Biden-linked Chinese company about criminal probe: IG report

The since-convicted FBI official who led counterintelligence efforts in New York leaked information to an affiliate of a Chinese company that was linked to Hunter Biden’s business efforts, according to a report released Thursday by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz.

Charles McGonigal, the former special-agent-in-charge of the FBI Counterintelligence Division in New York, leaked information to “Person B” – an unnamed businessman who worked for the Chinese energy conglomerate CEFC – even as the FBI was secretly investigating the Chinese company, according to the new report,

McGonigal, who was sentenced in December 2023 for money laundering related to a Russian oligarch, met with prosecutors in November 2023 and “acknowledged during the proffer interview that he shared information with Person B about the CEFC investigation and anticipated arrests arising from it.”

The DOJ watchdog said that “Person B was a consultant to foreign governments and businesses on international investments, and, in addition to his work for CEFC China, Person B was a non-governmental advisor to the Prime Minister of Albania.”

Horowitz assessed that “although the full extent of the harm from McGonigal’s leaks of sensitive investigative information to foreign subjects and targets will likely never be fully known, we determined that the impact of McGonigal’s conduct on the CEFC investigation, a significant FBI criminal investigation, was substantial.”

Hunter Biden and his associated businesses are also believed to have received $5 million or more in payments from CEFC in 2017 and 2018, and CEFC Chairman Ye Jianming’s deputy, Patrick Ho, also agreed to pay Biden, the son of former President Joe Biden, a $1 million legal retainer after Ho was eventually arrested. Hunter referred to him as “the f***ing spy chief of China” in a May 11, 2018, voice recording.

Ho was sentenced to three years in prison in March 2019 for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. He was deported to Hong Kong in June 2021 after serving his sentence.

“McGonigal admitted making it perfectly clear to Person B that ‘these people would be arrested’ and that Person B would be arrested, too, if he was involved. McGonigal said that he did not recall disclosing to Person B who specifically would be arrested but that he remembered discussing Ho and the CEFC China Chairman with Person B,” the DOJ watchdog wrote. 

“Eventually during his proffer, McGonigal acknowledged that he told Person B and Person A that the FBI was going to arrest individuals associated with CEFC (not just that they ‘would’ arrest people who were breaking the law.) 

McGonigal said that Person B told him that Ho was expected to travel (to the United States) and that McGonigal at some point told Person B that Ho would be arrested if Ho did so. 

McGonigal further acknowledged that Person B asked whether the chairman was going to be charged, and McGonigal told Person B that ‘there was a chance.’ 

According to McGonigal, he was motivated by ‘bravado’ in disclosing information to Person B about the CEFC investigation and anticipated arrests.”

McGonigal himself had been charged in January 2023 for illegally receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash from an individual who had business interests in Europe and who had been an employee of a foreign intelligence service.

The disgraced FBI official was sentenced to 50 months in prison in December 2023 for conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and to commit money laundering in connection with his 2021 agreement to provide illicit services to sanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.