Prime Minister Edi Rama's name appeared in the file of the investigation of the US justice for the former FBI official, Charles McGonigal. The latter is accused in the USA of money laundering and violations of sanctions against Russia, while according to CNN, it is suspected that he hid the meetings with Rama. 

"The FBI's counter-terrorism chief was and is my friend without a doubt. If he has an issue with US justice, then it's his issue. Let the justice speak because this whole mess is terrible", said Prime Minister Rama. 

The friend the Prime Minister was talking about a few months ago, Charles McGonigal, was arrested in the US last week, while he is charged with violating sanctions against Russia, as well as money laundering. 

According to American justice, McGonigal hid from the FBI the details of a trip he made to Albania in 2017, together with a former official of the Albanian intelligence services, who had given him $225,000. 

In disclosing the allegations against McGonigal; CNN writes that in a meeting he asked the Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama, to be "careful about granting licenses for oil field drilling in Albania to Russian front companies". 

In September, when MCGonigal's possible connection with Albania was first rumoured, the head of the Albanian government admitted knowing the former FBI official, but denied any suspicious connections with him. 

"There is a word about an issue that is in the USA, that has nothing to do with me, that has nothing to do with the Albanian government. That with this theory, we will not meet anyone, because tomorrow someone may have a problem with justice in their own country, but this is madness", said Rama. 

But in addition to laundering money, McGonigal is accused of working to lift sanctions on Oleg Deripaska while leading the FBI's Russian oligarch probe, and of taking money from him in 2021 to investigate a rival oligarch.