In Tirana, Agron Neza, a key figure in the case raised in the United States against former high-ranking FBI official Charles McGonigal for his connections with Albania, was summoned to the Special Prosecutor\u2019s Office on Monday, where he stayed for about 6 hours. He declined to make statements or comments on the matter for which he was summoned. Documents from the U.S. Department of Justice, read by Voice of America, indicate that in the first half of 2018, Albanian-American Neza became a confidential source for the FBI regarding its investigations into McGonigal\u2019s contacts and movements in Albania.<\/p>\n
The Albanian Special Prosecutor\u2019s Office was set in motion by a lawsuit filed by Democratic deputy Gazment Bardhi, seeking investigations into the possible involvement of Prime Minister Edi Rama, who had met several times with McGonigal, both in Tirana and in the United States. Neza, an Albanian-American, appears to have been the link between the former FBI official and the Albanian Prime Minister. The latter has stated, \u201cI have never met Mr. Nezaj before. We have not exchanged letters, interests, or anything else, but I have only met him in the presence of the former high-ranking FBI official\u201d. Dorian Du\u00e7ka, who was also mentioned in the indictment against McGonigal, was present at their meetings. Du\u00e7ka, a former government official, later served as an external advisor to Prime Minister Rama, as stated by Rama himself.<\/p>\n
McGonigal admitted in September to receiving 225,000 US dollars from Neza. McGonigal himself had asked Neza in August and later in September 2017 if he could secure a sum of money, which Neza provided in three different installments during that fall.<\/p>\n
Voice of America has read the document that prosecutors from the Department of Justice submitted to the court on January 5, 2024. They seek 30 months of imprisonment and a 95,000 dollar fine \u201cfor serious breach of public trust\u201d.<\/p>\n
The document explains that McGonigal requested the money, justifying it as needed due to financial pressures and expenses for his children\u2019s university. He assured Neza that he would repay the amount in the future. Neza expected to collaborate with McGonigal on profitable business ventures.<\/p>\n
According to the prosecutors, McGonigal not only failed to disclose receiving the money but also advanced the business interests of Neza and deceived the FBI about their joint activities, thus concealing the fact that he had conflicts of interest and private financial interests.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis essentially constitutes corruption that undermines transparency and trust in the integrity of the Executive Branch of the Government. The defendant swore to investigate and prevent crimes against the United States, not to commit them,\u201d the document states.<\/p>\n
The admission of guilt was made in September in the federal court in Washington, based on an agreement between prosecutors and McGonigal\u2019s lawyers. He admitted guilt for one of the charges, that of concealing material evidence, and prosecutors dropped the other eight charges.<\/p>\n
McGonigal has accepted all the accusations related to Albania, including his contacts with Prime Minister Rama and Du\u00e7ka. When asked by Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly on November 25 if he had \u201cinformed the Prosecutor of the Department of Justice… about a possible criminal investigation of an American citizen, registered to lobby \u2018for a party that was not Prime Minister Rama\u2019s\u2019\u201d, McGonigal answered, \u201cYes\u201d.<\/p>\n
The American lobbyist and the Albanian party are not identified in the indictment.<\/p>\n
However, on November 14, 2017, lobbyist Nick Muzin submitted, albeit belatedly, documents to the Department of Justice regarding his lobbying activities on behalf of the Democratic Party.<\/p>\n
The former FBI official informed the U.S. Department of Justice about this case on November 25, \u201cafter receiving information about the American lobbyist from person B\u201d, identified as Dorian Du\u00e7ka.<\/p>\n
At that time, precisely two days earlier, on November 22, BIRN had publicly revealed that Muzin had declared receiving 500,000 dollars from the Democratic Party.<\/p>\n
In January 2018, the former FBI official received information again, this time from Albanian-American Neza. According to the indictment, he obtained this information from the office of the Prime Minister of Albania. When he spoke in Parliament last year about this issue, Rama stated, \u201cThe time to which this moment refers coincides with the days after the scandal broke in the media here, and I and my office had nothing else related to this, except for the information that came out in the media. If we had anything else, how would we keep it hidden?\u201d He added, \u201cIf I had any information, more than what came out in the media, about the horrifying fact that the Russians were financing the largest opposition in this country to overthrow the Government, I would have conveyed it to anyone I could, without any discussion, to organizations sensitive to these issues and certainly to the FBI, without a doubt, in the first place\u201d.<\/p>\n
But in fact, at that time, there was no mention of Russian financing. BIRN\u2019s article did not address this issue, which came to light later in March 2018, following suspicions raised by an article published by the American magazine \u201cMother Jones\u201d.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, the Prime Minister has never explained why Neza and Du\u00e7ka were directly involved in this issue. The former became a confidential source for the FBI for this case, and the latter, a counselor to Rama, sponsored the trips of witnesses from Europe for their meetings with the FBI.<\/p>\n
On their part, documents obtained by Voice of America show that the investigation was opened in February 2018 for some discrepancies in completing FARA (Foreign Agents Registration Act) documents, and it raised questions within the FBI personnel.<\/p>\n
Questions from FBI officials regarding the request to investigate the lobbyist<\/strong><\/p>\n In support of this fact, prosecutors attach a letter from an FBI agent with some identifying data redacted. The letter is dated March 16, 2018, and the official writing it questions \u201cwhy, given limited resources and the fact that many field offices struggle to investigate more serious threats\u201d, the New York office is requesting an investigation into potential FARA violations, presenting this as a threat to national security?<\/p>\n Furthermore, the official writes that he wants to be able to answer superiors if questions arise. \u201cI would like to explain to them why we are working on a SIM\/FARA issue related to Albania when every day I fight for resources for some national security issues related to some countries that pose a high threat like…\u201d, the letter says, with the names of other countries erased.<\/p>\n The decision to close the investigation is also attached, dated July 25, 2019, after McGonigal retired. It states that \u201cthe FBI\u2019s New York office has not concluded that [redacted name] has committed criminal activity while representing a foreign political force and has fulfilled the necessary documentation for FARA at the Department of Justice\u201d. The document mentions the Democratic Party of Albania by name.<\/p>\n The prosecutors of the Department of Justice have requested the court to sentence former FBI agent Charles McGonigal to 30 months in prison and a fine of 95,000 dollars \u201cfor a serious breach of public trust\u201d, as stated in the memorandum regarding the charges for the case related to Albania.<\/p>\n The former high-ranking counterintelligence official of the FBI admitted guilt in August and in a New York court regarding the accusation of violating U.S. sanctions against Russia, while working after retirement for Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, whom he had previously investigated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In Tirana, Agron Neza, a key figure in the case raised in the United States against former high-ranking FBI official Charles McGonigal for his connections with Albania, was summoned to the Special Prosecutor\u2019s Office on Monday, where he stayed for about 6 hours. He declined to make statements or comments on the matter for which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":64984,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[153],"tags":[5875,270,4874,5876,4406,573,150,243,151,3402,4407,5874,477,362],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n