New York|N.Y. Official Charged With Taking Money, Travel and Poultry to Aid China
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N.Y. Official Charged With Taking Money, Travel and Poultry to Aid China
Linda Sun, who worked for both Gov. Kathy Hochul and Gov. Andrew Cuomo, was accused of using her position to benefit the Chinese government.
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New York Official Is Charged as Chinese AgentLinda Sun, a former aide to Gov. Kathy Hochul, was charged with 10 criminal counts that included visa fraud, money laundering and other crimes.
“Linda, what do you have to say to the allegations?” “We have a lot of confidence in our case. A lot of the allegations in this indictment are, frankly, perplexing, overly inflammatory.”
Linda Sun, a former aide to Gov. Kathy Hochul, was charged with 10 criminal counts that included visa fraud, money laundering and other crimes.CreditCredit…Jefferson Siegel for The New York Times
In July 2021, six Nanjing-style salted ducks, prepared by a Chinese consulate official’s private chef, were delivered to the parents of an aide to New York’s then governor, Andrew M. Cuomo. About four months later, another six ducks arrived at their home. Another four months later, there were more salted ducks. Eight months after that: still more salted ducks.
Prosecutors say that the poultry shipments, described in a federal indictment unsealed Tuesday, were just a small part of a yearslong series of payoffs to the aide, Linda Sun, in exchange for actions that benefited the People’s Republic of China and its Communist Party. The 65-page indictment also described travel benefits, event tickets and the promotion of a close friend’s freight business with a headquarters in Queens.
Prosecutors say that Ms. Sun blocked Taiwanese officials from having access to the governor’s office, eliminated references to Taiwan from state communications and quashed meetings between Taiwanese officials and state leaders, including Gov. Kathy Hochul, who succeeded Mr. Cuomo and who promoted Ms. Sun to deputy chief of staff.
She also ensured that state officials did not publicly address the persecution of Uyghurs, a primarily Muslim ethnic group that for more than a thousand years has lived in a region of what is now China, prosecutors said.
Ms. Sun, 40, was charged on Tuesday with 10 criminal counts that included visa fraud, money laundering and other crimes. Her husband, Chris Hu, 41, a businessman, is charged in the indictment with money laundering.
Both pleaded not guilty in federal court, were released on bond and were required to surrender their passports.
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