A former aide to two New York governors went on trial Wednesday on charges she sold her influence to the Chinese government and illegally profited from the state\u2019s bulk purchase of face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
Linda Sun and her husband, Chris Hu,\u00a0were arrested<\/a>\u00a0last year during a U.S. crackdown on alleged Chinese secret agents. They were\u00a0charged again<\/a>\u00a0in June as part of the government\u2019s efforts to root out pandemic fraud.<\/p>\n What You Need To Know<\/p>\n A former aide to two New York governors, Linda Sun, went on trial Wednesday on charges she sold her influence to the Chinese government and illegally profited from the state\u2019s bulk purchase of face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic \u201cLinda Sun was for sale,\u201d prosecutor Amanda Shami told jurors in an opening statement.<\/p>\n Sun and Hu made millions of dollars from their illicit conduct and reaped other rewards, including Nanjing-style salted ducks, a delicacy prepared by a Chinese official’s personal chef and delivered to Sun\u2019s parents\u2019 New York home, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe evidence will show the defendants\u2019 greed. The evidence will show the defendants\u2019 betrayal,” Shami said.<\/p>\n Sun, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in China, held numerous posts over a roughly 15-year career in state government, including as deputy chief of staff to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and deputy diversity officer under former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, both Democrats.<\/p>\n Sun has pleaded not guilty to charges alleging she failed to register as an agent of a foreign government, conspired with her husband to commit money laundering and helped people commit visa fraud to enter the U.S. illegally.<\/p>\n Hu has pleaded not guilty to charges including money laundering, tax evasion, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and misuse of identification. Neither has been charged with espionage.<\/p>\n They both pleaded not guilty to bribery and other charges in the alleged mask scheme.<\/p>\n Sun\u2019s lawyer, Jarrod L. Schaeffer, told jurors the charges \u201cassault everything she’s built her life around.\u201d<\/p>\n Sun, he said, was a proud American and a loyal public servant who only dealt with China in an official, legal capacity, including as a liaison to the Asian community.<\/p>\n \u201cLinda Sun did what she was hired to do. That\u2019s what the evidence will show,” Schaeffer said in his opening statement in Brooklyn federal court. \u201cShe didn’t commit a crime by doing her job.\u201d<\/p>\n Schaeffer called Sun\u2019s foreign agent charge \u201cnonsense,\u201d telling jurors: \u201cLinda did not have to register as a foreign agent because she is not one.”<\/p>\n In court filings ahead of the trial, Schaeffer argued the government had charged her because she and her family \u201chad too much money\u201d and that the case is filled with \u201cglaring inconsistencies.”<\/p>\n Judge Brian Cogan has said he expects the trial to take about a month.<\/p>\n Federal prosecutors allege Sun acted at the request of Chinese officials to block Taiwanese government representatives from having access to the governor\u2019s office and shaped the state\u2019s messaging to align with Chinese government priorities, among other things.<\/p>\n Among the evidence, Shami said, were messages showing Sun \u201cbragging to the Chinese consulate\u201d about blocking Taiwan’s access and invitations to Chinese officials bearing Hochul\u2019s forged signature. Hu, the prosecutor said, kept a spreadsheet of expected kickbacks and tried opening a bank account in his mother-in-law’s name to launder the proceeds.<\/p>\n In return, Hu got help for his business activities in China, which prosecutors said allowed the couple to buy their multimillion-dollar Long Island home, a $1.9 million Hawaii condominium, and luxury cars including a 2024 Ferrari.<\/p>\n Sun and Hu are also accused of pocketing millions in kickbacks by exploiting her role on a Cuomo administration team that procured much-needed personal protective equipment as COVID-19 was taking hold in 2020.<\/p>\n \u201cNot only did Linda Sun betray New York state government by working for the Chinese government, the defendant betrayed New Yorkers when they were most vulnerable,\u201d Shami told jurors.<\/p>\n Sun used her ties to wrangle PPE, connecting the state with vendors the Chinese government recommended. But, prosecutors said, she also forged documents to falsely claim that Chinese contacts had suggested two additional companies \u2014 One run by Sun\u2019s cousin, the other by Hu’s business associate.<\/p>\n Sun didn\u2019t disclose those relationships to New York\u2019s government, which signed contracts with the companies in March 2020 and paid them more than $44 million, prosecutors said. The cousin funneled about $2.3 million to Hu, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n Asked about Sun at a congressional hearing in September 2024, Cuomo said: \u201cShe was a junior member in my team. I wouldn\u2019t recognize her if she was in this room today.\u201d<\/p>\n Hochul’s office said the administration fired her after \u201cdiscovering evidence of misconduct.”<\/p>\n \u201cThis individual was hired by the Executive Chamber more than a decade ago. We terminated her employment in March 2023 after discovering evidence of misconduct, immediately reported her actions to law enforcement and have assisted law enforcement throughout this process,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former aide to two New York governors went on trial Wednesday on charges she sold her influence…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37504,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[109,116,25,118,257,75,9,24,49,12,112,63,87,134,136,135,27],"class_list":{"0":"post-37503","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-app-local-state-politics","9":"tag-app-ny-state-of-politics","10":"tag-app-top-stories","11":"tag-associated-press","12":"tag-central-ny","13":"tag-manhattan","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-new-york-state","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-ny-state-of-politics","19":"tag-nyc","20":"tag-politics","21":"tag-staten-island","22":"tag-staten-island-headlines","23":"tag-staten-island-news","24":"tag-top-stories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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Sun and her husband, Chris Hu,\u00a0were arrested\u00a0last year during a U.S. crackdown on alleged Chinese secret agents. They were\u00a0charged again\u00a0in June as part of the government\u2019s efforts to root out pandemic fraud
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Sun, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in China, held numerous posts over a roughly 15-year career in state government, including as deputy chief of staff to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and deputy diversity officer under former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, both Democrats<\/p>\n