McGonigal, who was the head of the FBI’s counterintelligence division in New York before retiring in 2018, pleaded guilty to one count of concealing a material fact.
“This is not a situation I wanted to be in,” McGonigal said in a brief statement of apology to the FBI in court.
He admitted to concealing that he had received $225,000 in cash from a former Albanian intelligence officer and potential business partner.
He explained in court that their meetings and trips were designed to prepare the ground for a consulting business they planned to start when McGonigal left the FBI.
The cover-up charge is punishable by up to five years in prison, but it has been announced that prosecutors are likely to seek a lesser sentence as part of a plea deal.
All other charges against him were dropped, Reuters reported.
McGonigal previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges in a separate federal case in Manhattan related to his work for Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska while he was under US sanctions.
