Linda Sun, former aide to both New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, is facing fraud charges on top of previous accusations of acting as an unregistered agent of the Chinese regime.
According to prosecutors, Sun used her position as deputy chief diversity officer under Cuomo in 2020 to manipulate the procurement process when COVID-19 first hit the United States. At the time, New York emerged as a domestic epicenter of the outbreak, and the state was scrambling to procure personal protective equipment and ventilators.
The Chinese authorities had provided a list of recommended vendors, but prosecutors allege that Sun added two companies to that list: one operated by her second cousin and the other by her husband.
In March 2020, Sun altered an email from an official in China’s Jiangsu Province to include her cousin’s surgical mask company, the indictment states. She then allegedly forwarded the doctored email to state procurement officials, falsely claiming that the Jiangsu Chamber of Commerce endorsed the cousin’s company, and that its surgical masks were the “gold standard,” according to the indictment.
Between March 2020 and June 2020, New York state wired nearly $45 million to the two companies. Prosecutors, citing a spreadsheet recovered from the couple’s personal computer, said Sun and Hu allegedly received $2.3 million in kickbacks for their efforts.
According to prosecutors, another spreadsheet from one of Hu’s electronic accounts estimated that the couple would net more than $8 million in profits from the scheme, including the kickbacks.
“We demand better from our public servants, and this Office will continue to hold accountable public officials who enrich themselves at the expense of the New York taxpayers.”
The new charges against Sun and Hu include honest services wire fraud, bank fraud, and conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States. Hu also faces an additional charge of tax evasion. The two are scheduled to be arraigned on June 30.
These charges add to the September 2024 allegations that Sun worked on behalf of the Chinese regime while serving as the governor’s aide. The initial charges include violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act, visa fraud, bringing in illegal immigrants, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Prosecutors allege that Sun used her state government position to promote the interests of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), particularly by trying to derail New York’s diplomatic engagement with Taiwan, which the CCP claims as a breakaway province.
In one instance in April 2020, Sun allegedly tried to stonewall a request to arrange a phone call in which then-Lt. Gov. Hochul would have thanked the director-general of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office—Taiwan’s de facto consulate to the United States—for a donation of 200,000 surgical masks. According to the indictment, Sun eventually gave in, but assured a CCP official that the state would not formally acknowledge the donation.
In another episode later in 2020, Sun allegedly took credit for instructing a New York state press team to modify a press release that would have referred to Taiwan as a country—an edit that earned her praise from a different CCP official, according to the indictment.
Jarrod Schaeffer, the attorney representing Sun, told The Epoch Times in an email that his client denies the latest allegations and intends to fight the charges at trial.
“Scrambling to develop new theories and shoving new charges into an indictment as trial looms is both unfortunate and telling, but it is also unsurprising given how this case has proceeded and the government’s recent efforts to further delay trial in this case,” Schaeffer said.
“The newest allegations continue the government’s trend of making and publicizing feverish accusations unmoored from the facts and evidence that we expect will actually come out at trial. Ms. Sun vehemently denies these latest allegations and intends to vigorously contest them in court.”
