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.