A former senior aide to New York’s Democrat governor Kathy Hochul has been arrested and charged with acting as an undisclosed agent of China.
Linda Sun, 41, who worked as deputy chief of staff to Ms Hochul for two years, and her husband Chris Hu, 40, were arrested on Tuesday morning at their home on New York’s Long Island, six weeks after FBI agents searched the property.
Ms Sun is alleged to have acted on behalf of the Chinese government in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Ms Sun has also been charged with visa fraud, alien smuggling, and money laundering. Ms Sun’s husband, who runs a seafood and wine business, was also charged with money laundering conspiracy, as well as conspiracy to commit bank fraud.
The US government alleges that Ms Sun and her husband “laundered millions of dollars” for China and used the proceeds to buy property on Long Island valued at $4.1 million, a $2.1 million condominium in Hawaii, luxury cars, including a 2024 Ferrari, and had Nanjing-style salted ducks prepared by the Chinese government official’s personal chef delivered to the home of Ms Sun’s parents.
“As alleged, while appearing to serve the people of New York as deputy chief of staff within the New York State Executive Chamber, the defendant and her husband actually worked to further the interests of the Chinese government and the CCP,” US attorney Breon Peace said in a statement, adding that the “illicit scheme enriched the defendant’s family to the tune of millions of dollars”.
Threatened national security
Christie Curtis, FBI acting assistant director, said Ms Sun had “wielded her position of influence among executives to covertly promote PRC and CCP agendas, directly threatening our country’s national security.”
While working for the New York State government as its highest-ranking Asian-American, Ms Sun engaged in numerous political activities on behalf of China, including blocking representatives of the Taiwanese government from having access to high-level New York State officers, the indictment alleges.
Prosecutors also allege that Ms Sun tried to facilitate a trip to China by an unnamed, high-level New York politician, changed New York officials messaging so that they favoured China, and arranged for meetings by Chinese officials with New York government officials.
The couple were expected to appear in a federal court in Brooklyn later on Tuesday.
The arrests come two weeks after long-serving New Jersey Democrat senator Bob Menendez was forced to resign from the US Senate after being convicted on 16 counts tied to a scheme where he accepted bribes, including gold bars and a Mercedes-Benz, to aid the Qatari and Egyptian governments.
Source Agencies
