Former aide to New York governors charged with acting as an agent of the Chinese government

(CNN) — A former aide to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo was charged with acting as an agent for the Chinese government, US Attorney Breon Peace announced Tuesday.

Linda Sun, a former deputy chief of staff to Hochul and Cuomo aide, was charged with violating and conspiring to violate the Foreign Agents Registrations Act, visa fraud, alien smuggling and money laundering conspiracy, according to an unsealed copy of the indictment.

Her husband and co-defendant, Chris Hu, was also charged with money laundering conspiracy and conspiracy to commit bank fraud as well as misusing means of identification, prosecutors said.

Their home was raided by federal investigators in July, according to sources.

Sun acted as “an undisclosed agent of the Chinese government while her husband, Hu, facilitated the transfer of millions of dollars in kickbacks for personal gain,” prosecutors said in a news release.

While working for state government, Sun influenced the messaging of high-level state officials regarding issues of importance to China, blocked Taiwanese government representatives from access to the officials, and obtained official New York State proclamations for Chinese government representatives without authorization, prosecutors alleged in the indictment.

The couple’s arrest comes at a time when US-China relations remain fraught over a host of frictions including Beijing’s aggressions in the South China Sea and toward Taiwan, and US trade controls targeting China.

Sun and Hu were arrested at their Long Island residence Tuesday morning.

Sun and Hu both pleaded not guilty to all charges in federal court Tuesday afternoon. Sun’s bond is set at $1.5 million and her husband’s is set at $500,000. Both will have their travel limited to New York City, Long Island, Maine and New Hampshire. Their next court date was set for September 25.

During the hearing, prosecutors alleged the defendants used shell companies, iCloud accounts and WeChat messages – with everything in Mandarin – in their alleged crimes.

Defense attorney Seth DuCharme addressed reporters outside court Tuesday, saying “we have a lot of confidence in our case.”

“A lot of the allegations in this indictment are frankly perplexing, overly inflammatory,” he said. “As you heard in court today, we are looking forward to our day in court. The defendants are exercising their right to a speedy trial as soon as they can; we have a lot of confidence in Chris and in Linda.”

An attorney for Sun, Jarrod Schaeffer, told CNN the charges “are inflammatory and appear to be the product of an overly aggressive prosecution.”

“We are also troubled by aspects of the government’s investigation. As we said today in court, our client is eager … to defend against these accusations in the proper forum – a court of law,” Schaeffer said.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it was unaware of the aide accused of working for China.

“I am not aware of the situation you mentioned,” spokesperson Mao Ning said, adding, “I will not comment on the domestic cases in the United States, but we oppose malicious associations and slander against China.”

Sun held several government titles for more than a decade. Public employment records and her LinkedIn profile show positions spanned across several agencies focused on New York’s economic development, labor and the executive chamber.

In 2009, Sun was hired as chief of staff in Rep. Grace Meng’s office when Meng was in the State Assembly. The administration of then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo then hired Sun in 2012, naming her director of Asian American affairs and Queens representative. Sun then became director of external affairs for Empire State Development, which handles economic development across the state. In 2018 the Cuomo administration re-hired her, naming her chief diversity officer; she later took a job in the state Department of Financial Services.

After Hochul ascended to the state’s top office in 2021, Sun was hired as deputy chief of staff, serving for about a year before heading for a post as deputy commissioner for strategic business at the Department of Labor, which terminated her employment in March 2023.

That 2023 firing happened after the governor’s office discovered “evidence of misconduct,” Hochul’s press secretary, Avi Small, said in a statement to CNN without elaborating about the misconduct.

“(We) immediately reported her actions to law enforcement and have assisted law enforcement throughout this process,” Small said.

Rich Azzopardi, a spokesperson for Cuomo, said in a statement that national security “must be free from foreign influence.”

“While Ms. Sun was promoted to deputy chief of staff in the subsequent administration, during our time she worked in a handful of agencies and was one of many community liaisons who had little to no interaction with the governor.”

Allegations of unauthorized letters, money laundering and salted ducks from the Chinese government

Sun violated internal rules and state government protocols to benefit the Chinese government, according to court documents.

Among Sun’s activities, prosecutors say, she acted as an undisclosed agent of the People’s Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party, acting at their request and engaging in political activities to further the interests of the CCP.

The indictment details an effort by Sun to secure “unauthorized invitation letters” from the office of the governor which were then used to facilitate travel by government officials with the People’s Republic of China into the United States for meetings with state officials in New York.

Sun’s unauthorized letters included false statements about immigration documents and “induced the foreign citizens into unlawfully entering the United States,” prosecutors wrote.

Prosecutors also allege she tried to “facilitate a trip” to China by a high-level, unnamed New York politician.

Sun and her husband received “substantial economic and other benefits” which included millions of dollars in transactions for PRC business activities of Hu, travel benefits, tickets to events, employment for Sun’s cousin in the PRC, a delivery of “Nanjing-style salted ducks prepared by a PRC official’s personal chef” that were then delivered to the residence of Sun’s parents, among others, according to the indictment.

They also laundered the monetary proceeds to buy real estate in New York and Hawaii and various luxury vehicles, according to the indictment.

Prosecutors allege Sun blocked Taiwanese diplomacy and ensured Cuomo praised China for help with Covid-19

Sun is accused of acting at the request of the Chinese government and the CCP to block representatives of the Taiwanese government from having access to state government officials because she knew CCP officials were “opposed to such diplomacy,” according to the court documents.

Prosecutors also said while the office of the governor did not have a position on recognizing Taiwan, Sun used her position to change both Cuomo’s and Hochul’s “messaging regarding issues of importance to the PRC and the CCP” and helped minimize interactions between the governor’s office and representatives from the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the US. Also known as TECO, the office serves as a de facto, yet unofficial, embassy to Taiwan. TECO maintains offices that provide consular and other services across various cities in the US, including New York.

Court documents show Sun used her position to block small shows of diplomacy. In January 2020, a TECO representative wrote a letter to Cuomo informing him of the latest presidential election results in Taiwan and requested a congratulatory message to be forwarded to Taipei. After an employee in the governor’s office flagged the request to Sun, she quickly blocked the effort, responding, “No letter; would set off political firestorm.”

By the time the pandemic arrived in New York, Sun was working behind the scenes to give Chinese officials access to New York government officials, prosecutors say. In one instance, prosecutors say Sun added a Chinese official to a “private New York State government conference call concerning the health response to the Covid-19 pandemic and the administration’s response to rising hate crimes against Asian Americans.” The call was not open to the public.

As the pandemic took hold, court documents say, Sun worked to ensure Cuomo was heaping public praise on Chinese officials for sending medical equipment to the city while simultaneously blocking Taiwan, which also sought public acknowledgment for providing 200,000 masks at the height of the pandemic that was ravaging New York.

In April 2020, a PRC official informed Sun that several Chinese foundations would donate 1,000 ventilators to the Greater New York Hospital Association, according to the indictment. In return, Sun told the official that Cuomo would call him to thank him for the donation. After waiting two hours for the call, the official complained that he had not yet heard from Cuomo. In turn, Sun apologized and indicated that Cuomo would thank him in public and on social media for facilitating the donation which was scheduled to arrive in New York the next day, according to the indictment.

Cuomo is not identified by name in the indictment, but his tenure as governor aligns with the timeline of the allegations.

An archived X post shows Cuomo posted a message of thanks from his government account the next day.

“We finally got some good news today. The Chinese government helped facilitate a donation of 1,000 ventilators that will arrive in JFK today. I thank the Chinese government, Jack Ma, Joe Tsai, the Jack Ma Foundation, the Tsai Foundation and Consul General Huang,” the post reads.

Hochul says she’s furious and ‘absolutely shocked’

Hochul is furious, outraged and “absolutely shocked at how brazen” Sun’s behavior is alleged to have been, the governor said in an appearance Tuesday evening with WNYC radio.

“It was a betrayal of trust,” Hochul told WNYC about the allegations against Sun.

Hochul said her office fired Sun in 2023 “the second we discovered some levels of misconduct” and “alerted the authorities – and hence we ended up with what happened here today.”

When WNYC asked Hochul for details about why Sun was fired, the governor declined to give specifics, citing authorities’ investigation. The depth of the allegations against Sun were apparent to the governor and her staff only after reading details of the indictment, said Hochul, who emphasized to WNYC that Sun worked only 15 months for her administration and had initially been hired by the previous one.

New York State Senate Republican Leader Rob Ortt has called for an investigation into the alleged breach.

“The fact that a spy for a hostile nation was embedded at the highest levels of our state government under two administrations is an alarming security failure, jeopardizing both New York and the entire country,” Ortt said in a statement. “New York should be a beacon of freedom, a place where people flee from oppressive regimes, not a platform for spies to infiltrate our government and undermine our state and nation.”

This story has been updated with additional information.

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