NEW YORK\u00a0\u2014\u00a0A judge declared a mistrial Monday in the corruption case of a former aide to New York governors after jurors said they were hopelessly deadlocked and couldn\u2019t reach a verdict on charges that she sold her influence to China and profited from a medical equipment scheme during the pandemic. <\/p>\n
The federal jury in Brooklyn was unable to reach a unanimous verdict in the case against Linda Sun and her husband, Chris Hu. The foreperson said the panel was deadlocked on all 19 counts.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour honor, after extensive deliberations and re-deliberations the jury remains unable to reach a unanimous verdict. The jurors positions are firmly held,\u201d the jury said in a note to U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan shortly after resuming deliberations Monday with an alternate juror taking the place of a juror who had to leave because of prior travel commitments.<\/p>\n
Prosecutor Alexander Solomon told the judge that the government wants to retry the case \u201cas soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sun was accused of using her state government position to subtly advance Beijing\u2019s agenda in exchange for financial benefits worth millions of dollars. They say Sun also took kickbacks from Chinese companies to steer lucrative state contracts for face masks and other crucial medical supplies during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
The case and nearly monthlong trial were part of a broader Justice Department effort to root out agents working clandestinely in the U.S. for the Chinese government as it seeks to influence U.S. politics as well as harass and threaten dissidents overseas.<\/p>\n
Sun was charged with acting as an unregistered agent for China, visa fraud, money laundering and other counts. Hu was charged with money laundering, bank fraud and tax evasion. They were charged jointly with wire fraud, bribery and conspiracy to defraud the United States.<\/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
She was fired in 2023 after the Hochul administration said it discovered the misconduct. <\/p>\n
During the trial, prosecutors said Sun took steps to align the state\u2019s messaging with Chinese government priorities. They said emails and phone messages showed how she worked to prevent representatives of Taiwan\u2019s government, which China does not recognize as sovereign, from interacting with the governor\u2019s office. <\/p>\n
In one instance, Sun even scuttled an invitation for Cuomo to meet Taiwan\u2019s president while on a visit to the U.S.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors said she also pushed to remove references in official statements that referenced the Uyghurs, a persecuted Muslim minority group in China. They said Sun forged Hochul\u2019s signature on official letters so that Chinese officials could obtain visas to enter the country. <\/p>\n
Sun \u201cbragged repeatedly to her handlers in the Chinese government about what a good asset she had been,\u201d Assistant U.S. Atty. Alexander Solomon said in his closing arguments.<\/p>\n
In return, she reaped millions of dollars in financial benefits, including helping turn her husband\u2019s fledgling business of exporting American lobsters to China into a lucrative enterprise. <\/p>\n
Prosecutors say the couple also took steps to hide the ill-gotten gains, using a system of cash pickups, shell companies and payments through third parties and relatives \u2014 all laid out in detailed spreadsheets maintained by Hu. <\/p>\n
They say the sudden riches enabled the couple to live lavishly, purchasing a multimillion-dollar home on Long Island, a $1.9-million condominium in Hawaii, a new Ferrari and other luxury cars. Sun and Hu also enjoyed other perks, including Nanjing-style salted ducks that were prepared by a Chinese official\u2019s personal chef, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n
\u201cLinda Sun betrayed the state of New York to enrich herself,\u201d Solomon said. \u201cYou saw it time and again, a clear pattern of corruption.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sun\u2019s lawyers, however, cast her as a \u201cproud American\u201d and a loyal public servant simply doing her job as the governor\u2019s liaison to the Asian American community.<\/p>\n
Kenneth Abell, in his closing remarks, acknowledged that Sun carefully cultivated official relationships with Chinese consulate officials. But he also pointed to other instances when Sun met with and was even honored by the local Taiwanese community. <\/p>\n
He argued that Sun\u2019s decision to block an the invitation to meet the president of Taiwan was in keeping with past practice: no New York governor has ever met with the president of Taiwan.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was just being careful,\u201d Abell said. \u201cIt was not her place to push a policy on Taiwan.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prosecutors, he added, didn\u2019t provide any evidence to their claim that Sun had forged Hochul\u2019s signature on visa documents for Chinese officials.<\/p>\n
He also questioned why Chinese companies would even need to make bribes to win state contracts during the pandemic. After all, Abell argued, New York and other states were spending freely and quickly as they stockpiled crucial medical supplies.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe story has huge holes in it,\u201d he said. \u201cThe government is trying hard to fit the facts into its narrative.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marcelo writes for the Associated Press. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK\u00a0\u2014\u00a0A judge declared a mistrial Monday in the corruption case of a former aide to New York…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78793,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[827,39170,39167,39108,39168,39169,21667,32744,9,4865,11,10,14468,854,17110,530,17649,750],"class_list":["post-78792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-china","tag-chinese-government","tag-chinese-official","tag-chris-hu","tag-corruption-case","tag-hochul-administration","tag-influence","tag-linda-sun","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-governor","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-pandemic","tag-president","tag-prosecutor","tag-state","tag-taiwan","tag-trial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78792","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=78792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78792\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}