A bombshell Justice Department Inspector General report has unveiled a scandal that strikes at the heart of American counterintelligence operations, revealing how one of the FBI’s most senior officials betrayed his oath and compromised a critical investigation that could have exposed foreign influence operations targeting America’s political elite.
The newly declassified findings detail a web of corruption, leaked intelligence, and millions of dollars flowing between Chinese entities and prominent American political families, all while the very official tasked with protecting national security was secretly working to undermine the investigation from within.
The Betrayal at the Heart of America’s Security Apparatus
Charles McGonigal, who served as the Special Agent in Charge of Counterintelligence for the FBI’s New York Field Office from October 2016 until his retirement in September 2018, has been revealed as the central figure in what investigators describe as an unprecedented breach of national security protocols.
The 23-page Inspector General report, released September 4, 2025, details how McGonigal “engaged in disgraceful conduct” and “intentionally damaged an important criminal case, violated the public trust, and compromised the integrity of the FBI.” But the implications extend far beyond one rogue agent’s actions.
McGonigal “obstructed a criminal investigation that he was then supervising by disclosing sensitive, nonpublic case information about the subjects and targets of the investigation to the foreign national,” and withheld “information relevant to the case from the investigating F.B.I. N.Y. case agents”.
The Chinese Connection: CEFC China Energy and Its American Targets
At the center of this scandal lies the China Energy Fund Committee (CEFC), a multibillion-dollar Chinese conglomerate that investigators now understand was far more than a simple energy company. CEFC China Energy “existed not to conduct legitimate commercial business but to buy influence. It was part of China’s elite capture operations worldwide”.
The company was founded by Ye Jianming, a Chinese Communist Party-linked business tycoon who had close ties to Xi Jinping’s inner circle. CEFC operated both as a commercial enterprise and through its non-profit arm, the China Energy Fund Committee, which prosecutors later proved was used as a vehicle for international bribery and influence operations.
The FBI’s multi-year investigation into CEFC, considered one of the New York counterintelligence division’s most important cases, was examining whether the company was engaged in a sophisticated influence operation targeting American officials, including members of the Biden family.
The Leak That Changed Everything
In June 2017, McGonigal met with an Albanian official working for CEFC and told them “something to the effect of ‘we are looking into them’ or ‘we are going after them,'” the Albanian official, identified only as “Person B,” told the FBI in a 2022 proffer interview.
This Albanian associate, now identified as Dorian Ducka, a former senior Albanian government official who worked as a CEFC consultant earning $50,000 per month, immediately understood the gravity of what he had learned. “Person B” understood “‘we’ to be the FBI and ‘them’ to be CEFC China or CEFC NGO”.
The next day, Ducka traveled to Washington, D.C., where he met with Patrick Ho, CEFC’s top executive, and shared the intelligence leak. The information quickly made its way up the chain to CEFC Chairman Ye Jianming, who then warned other targets of the investigation about potential arrests.
Patrick Ho: The “Spy Chief of China”
Patrick Ho, a Hong Kong-born former government official who had served as CEFC’s secretary-general, was a central figure in the FBI’s investigation. Court documents later revealed that the bureau had obtained a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant to secretly intercept Ho’s communications, an action the FBI can only be granted for targets suspected of being an agent of a foreign power or a terrorist organization.
Internal documents from the House Oversight Committee reveal that Hunter Biden referred to Ho as “the f-king spy chief of China”—a striking acknowledgment of Ho’s political stature and influence. This characterization takes on additional significance given the extensive business relationships that would develop between Ho and the Biden family.
Ho was ultimately arrested in November 2017 on charges of bribing or attempting to bribe officials in Africa as CEFC pursued business deals there. He was convicted in 2018 and sentenced to three years in prison.
The Biden Family’s Multimillion-Dollar CEFC Connections
The OIG report reveals the extensive financial relationships between CEFC and members of the Biden family that were ongoing during the FBI’s investigation. Hunter Biden and James Biden received $4.8 million from CEFC’s affiliate, CEFC China Energy, during 2017–2018.
The money flowed through a complex web of shell companies designed to obscure the source and destination of the funds. Documents show that over a 14-month period in 2017 and 2018, CEFC China Energy paid $4.8 million to an investment vehicle controlled by Hunter Biden. During that same time frame, Hunter Biden’s firm transferred $1.4 million to James Biden’s consulting firm.
CEFC Chairman Ye Jianming famously gave Hunter Biden a 3.16-carat diamond estimated to be worth $80,000 in February 2017, further cementing the business relationship between the Chinese conglomerate and the Biden family.
James Biden’s Secret Service Connection
One of the most startling revelations in the OIG report concerns James Biden’s efforts to obtain inside information about the FBI investigation. In November 2017, James Biden reached out to a retired Secret Service agent who had served on Joe Biden’s security detail to inquire whether Patrick Ho had an active arrest warrant.
Hotel records show that James Biden was in Hong Kong on November 12, 2017, when he made calls to the retired Secret Service agent. The retired agent said that James Biden told him that “we have information from China that Ho may be arrested” and that Ho wanted to travel to the United States but was concerned about a potential warrant for his arrest.
The retired agent told Biden he did not find a warrant against Ho, but cautioned warrants are “sensitive” and not always detectable to private investigators. However, the FBI did have an arrest warrant out against Ho, and arrested him in New York on November 16, 2017.
This revelation directly contradicts James Biden’s testimony to Congress. In February 2024, James Biden told House investigators that he asked the former Secret Service agent to run a background check on Patrick Ho as simple due diligence for his “own edification” prior to meeting with Hunter and Ho in Hong Kong. The background check was “not to inform or anything else,” Biden testified.
Hunter Biden’s Legal Representation of Ho
Adding another layer to the complex relationship, in September 2017, just two months before Ho’s arrest, Hunter Biden (who is a lawyer) signed a retainer agreement to represent Ho. Bank records show $1 million was paid to Biden in March 2018 for the representation, although it is not clear what work, if any, he did for Ho.
At Ho’s 2018 trial, prosecutors hid Hunter’s connection to Ho, redacting his name from court exhibits while describing Ho as “the person who flies around the world paying bribes to advance the interest of the [Chinese government]”.
NBC News reported that Hunter Biden never appeared on the docket in Ho’s case. No emails were found on his laptop that indicated he was involved in the legal strategy of Ho’s case or drafted any legal documents outside his suggestion of whom Ho should hire as a defense lawyer.
The Scope of McGonigal’s Corruption
The corruption extended beyond just leaking information. McGonigal took almost a quarter of a million dollars from a former Albanian intelligence officer named Agron Neza, who worked for CEFC China Energy and subsequently brought into the relationship another Albanian named Dorian Ducka who also worked for CEFC.
McGonigal acknowledged during a November 17, 2023 proffer interview with the OIG, FBI, and DC USAO that he shared information with Person B about the CEFC investigation and anticipated arrests arising from it. The timing of these admissions came while McGonigal was awaiting sentencing on separate charges related to his work with Russian oligarchs.
McGonigal was ultimately sentenced to 50 months in federal prison in 2023 for colluding with a Russian oligarch to evade US sanctions, but the CEFC leak details were only made public in September 2025.
The Investigation That Was Compromised
The FBI’s CEFC investigation was extensive and sophisticated. The FBI New York counterintelligence division regarded the CEFC case as one of its most important multi-year investigations. The targets were CEFC China Energy, its U.S. operations, and key figures including Patrick Ho.
Investigators uncovered evidence that Patrick Ho funneled millions through New York banks to bribe officials in Chad and Uganda in exchange for CEFC business advantages. Another arm of the sprawling investigation connected Chinese organized crime and Macau development.
Beyond the CEFC schemes, the FBI and Southern District of New York also examined whether Ho and other targets had engaged in arms trafficking and sanctions violations, including selling Iranian oil to China, and trafficking Chinese weapons illegally.
The Warning Chain That Reached the Top
The leaked information created a chain reaction that extended to the highest levels of the Chinese operation. Ducka relayed the warning to Ho, disguising the source as “senior FBI officials.” Ho initially suspected CEFC chairman Ye Jianming was the real target and was somehow feeding false information.
In July 2017, Ducka met CEFC Chairman Ye in France, and in August Ye told Ho and other targets in Hong Kong that U.S. authorities had warrants for four CEFC figures: Ho, two Chinese nationals, and “a Jewish person associated with CEFC”.
This Jewish person was later identified as Gal Luft, an Israeli-American energy consultant who had been working closely with Ho and CEFC. The report adds that around this time, Ye pressed Ducka about the identity of the Israeli under FBI scrutiny. Ducka later told investigators that he showed McGonigal a photo of Ye’s Israeli acquaintance; McGonigal’s lack of reaction convinced Ducka that the FBI’s target was Luft.
The Broader Implications for National Security
The OIG report’s findings raise profound questions about the integrity of America’s counterintelligence operations during a critical period. The report states that McGonigal’s actions “while he served as a high-ranking FBI official entrusted with overseeing sensitive counterintelligence and criminal matters, were extraordinary and dishonored the FBI’s core values of integrity, accountability, and leadership expected of all FBI personnel”.
The DOJ watchdog concluded that “the impact of McGonigal’s misconduct extends far beyond the damage he inflicted on the CEFC case” because “when an SAC trades sensitive government information for personal advantage and engages in the same conduct he is responsible for investigating, the betrayal infects the morale of those who serve the FBI with honor and integrity and undermines the public’s confidence in the FBI”.
What the Investigation Could Have Revealed
The compromised investigation leaves open significant questions about what might have been discovered if McGonigal had not leaked sensitive information. The FBI coverage included monitoring of wire transfers from CEFC to the Bidens. The FBI knew that a Chinese intelligence front company was paying the then Vice-President’s son and brother.
The FBI took Ho’s computers, phones, and records. They found mountains of evidence regarding CEFC’s contacts with the Bidens. They exploited none of the evidence implicating the Bidens in possible espionage on behalf of a foreign power.
The watchdog report 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”.
The Current Political Context
These revelations come at a time of heightened scrutiny of foreign influence operations and the Biden family’s international business dealings. The timing of the report’s release, more than a year after McGonigal’s conviction on other charges, has raised questions about why these details were not made public earlier.
The OIG report notably does not accuse the Bidens of wrongdoing, but the chain of events and financial relationships it documents raise broader questions about foreign influence and whether American officials were potentially compromised by Chinese intelligence operations.
Congressional and Legal Responses
The revelations have sparked calls for further investigation from Republican lawmakers who have been examining Biden family business dealings. The inspector general report raises questions about whether James Biden lied to Congress about his efforts on behalf of Ho, potentially exposing him to perjury charges.
Senators Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson have previously sought intelligence records related to the Biden family’s business partners, specifically requesting information about FISA surveillance of Patrick Ho and others connected to CEFC.
The Lasting Damage to American Intelligence
The McGonigal case represents one of the most significant counterintelligence failures in recent FBI history. A senior FBI official tasked with protecting America from foreign intelligence operations was secretly working for those very foreign interests, compromising investigations and potentially allowing hostile foreign powers to continue their operations against American interests.
The case highlights the vulnerabilities in America’s security apparatus and raises questions about how many other investigations may have been compromised by officials who prioritized personal gain over national security.
The full extent of the damage may never be known, but the McGonigal case serves as a stark reminder of the ongoing threats facing American democracy and the critical importance of maintaining the integrity of the institutions charged with defending it.
As investigations continue and more details emerge, the McGonigal affair stands as a cautionary tale about the intersection of foreign influence, political corruption, and the betrayal of public trust at the highest levels of American law enforcement.
Adrian Hawthorne is a celebrated author and dedicated archivist who finds inspiration in the hidden stories of the past. Educated at Oxford, he now works at the National Archives, where preserving history fuels his evocative writing. Balancing archival precision with creative storytelling, Adrian founded the Hawthorne Institute of Literary Arts to mentor emerging writers and honor the timeless art of narrative.