Linda Sun a former deputy chief of staff to Hochul and Cuomo aide was charged with violating and conspiring to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act visa fraud, money laundering and smuggling conspiracy according to copy of the indictment.
Sun acted as undisclosed agent of the Chinese government while her hubby Hu facilitated the transfer of millions of dollars in kickbacks for personal gain prosecutors add in news statement.
Sun and Hu were arrested at their Long Island residence Tuesday morning.
Former aide to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and forme Gov. Andrew Cuomo was charged with acting as agent for chinese government US Attorney Breon Peace declared Tuesday.
Her spouse and co defendant Chris Hu was charged with commit bank fraud and conspiracy of money laundering and misusing ways of identification prosecutors tells.
Rich Azzopardi a spokesperson for Cuomo tells in a statement that national security must be free from foreign influence. While Ms. Su 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 multiple community liaison who had little to no interaction with governor.
During the hearing prosecutors alleged the defendants used shell companies, We chat messages and icloud accounts with everything in Mandarin in their alleged crimes.
In 2009 Sun was hired as chief of staff in Rep Grace Meng office when Meng was in State Assembly. The admin, of then Gov, Andrew Cuomo then hired sun in 2012 naming her director of Asian American Affairs and Queens rep.
Sun then became director external affairs of Empire State Development which manages economic development across the state.
In 2018 the Cuomo admin. re appoint her naming her chief diversity officer she do a job in state Department of Financial Services.
Defense attorney Seth DuCharme addressed reporters outside court Tuesday adding we have lot of confidence in our case.
“A lot of the allegation in this indictment are perplexing overly inflammatory he tells media. As you hear 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 confidence in Chris and in Linda”.
Sun and Hu both pleaded not guilty to all charges in federal court Tuesday afternoon.
Sun bond is set at $1.5 million and her husband is set at $500,000.
Their travel limited to New York City Long Island Maine and New Hampshire.
Sun held multiple government titles for over a decade. Public employment records and her Linkedin profile show position across multiple agencies focused on New York economic development labor and executive chamber.
Hochul raised to state top office in 2021 Sun was hired as deputy chief of staff doing a job almost a year prior moving for a post as deputy commissioner for strategic business at the Department of Labor which terminated her employment in March 2023.
2023 firing occurred after governor officer explored evidence of misconduct.
Sun unauthorized letters consisting of false statement about immigration documents and induced the foreign citizens into unlawfully everything the US Prosecutors wrote.
Sun and her spouse get mega economic and other advantages which consist of millions of dollars in transactions for PRC business activities of Hu travel benefits tickets to event employment for Sun cousin in PRC a delivery of Nanjing style salted ducks prepared by a PRC official personal chef that were then delivered to residence of Sun parents among others.
Prosecutors allege she attempt to facilitate a trip to china by high level unnamed New York politician.
They laundered the money proceeds to purchase real estate in Hawaii and New York multiple vehicles according to indictment.
Hochul is outraged and anger absolutely shocked and how brazen Sun behavior is alleged to have been the governor tells in an appearance Tuesday evening with WNYC radio.
When media asked Hochul for details about why Sun was fired the governor does not respond to give answers 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.
Hochul add her office fired Sun in 2023 the second we discover some levels of misconduct and alerted authorities and hence we ended up with what happened here today.
Sun is also accused of acting at the request of the Chinese government and the CCP to block rep. of the Taiwanese gove. from having reach to state government officials because she knew CCP officials were opposed to like diplomacy.
Court documents show Sun used her position to block small shows of diplomacy. In January 2020 a TECP rep. wrote a letter to Cuomo informing him of the latest presidential election result in Taiwan and requested a congratulatory text to be forwarded to Taipei.
After employee in governor office request to Sun she blocked the attempt replying “No letter would set off political firestorm”
Prosecutors also alleged while office of the governor did have position on recognizing Taiwan, Sun used her position to alter both Hochul and Cuomo text regarding issues of importance to the CCP and PRX and assisted minimize interaction between governor office and rep from the Taipei Economic and Cultural Rep. Office in the US famous as TECP the office serve as de facto yet unofficial embassy to Taiwan TECP maintain offices that supply consular and multiple service across many cities in the US.
As the pandemic finish Sun worked to ensure Cuomo was heaping public praise on Chinese officials for sending medical supply to the city while blocking Taiwan which sought public acknowledgement for supplying 200,000 mask at height of covid.
Sun was working behind the scenes to give chinese officials reach to NY govern. officials prosecutors add.
Sun added a chinese official to a private NY State govern. conference call concerning the health reply to the pandemic and admin. reply to rising hate crime against Asian Americans.The call was not open to public.
