section_path: Controversies/Charles McGonigal
section_name: Charles McGonigal
paragraph_text: Charles McGonigal
  
  In January 2023, Rama was implicated in a U.S. federal indictment concerning former senior FBI official Charles McGonigal. According to the indictment, in September 2017, McGonigal allegedly met with and tried to sway Rama into awarding an oil-drilling license to an Albanian-based company affiliated with McGonigal's business partners. In November 2017, shortly after a meeting with Rama in Albania, McGonigal allegedly informed a United States Department of Justice prosecutor of a potentially new criminal investigation into Nicolas Muzin, a U.S.-based lobbyist who had recently been hired by Rama's political rival, Lulzim Basha. The following month, McGonigal dined with Rama in Washington, D.C., and up until early 2018, received information about Muzin from the Albanian Prime Minister's office.
  
  Rama has denied any wrongdoing.