Ehemaliger Berater des Gouverneurs von New York wegen Tätigkeit als Agent der chinesischen Regierung angeklagt

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](https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/former-high-ranking-new-york-state-government-employee-charged-acting-undisclosed).

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.

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.”

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.”

Good. Because all Chinese spies and agents are a threat to any countries national security.

Huh, Eric Swalwell had the same issue with an aid he slept with….. however I don’t see anyone has mentioning that Tim Walz honeymooned in China and taught there.

Vetting process for aides is abyssmal.

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Department of Labor caught her within a year.

Is there anyone in politics today who isn’t bought and sold by one interest or another? I mean, why do we even pay politicians when their salary is a small part of their income?

Could be worse, you could be Canadian and wondering which of your members of parliament and perhaps the senate have been acting on behalf of the Chinese government!

Why have we heard so little lately about this? lol