Feds: Gov’s Aide ‘Became China Spy for Cash and Salted Duck’

Linda Sun, a former deputy chief of staff to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, and advisor to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo was arrested on federal charges of conspiring to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act, visa fraud, alien smuggling and money laundering, according to her indictment released Tuesday.

Her husband, Chris Hu, was also charged with money laundering conspiracy, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and misuse of means of identification.

“As alleged, while appearing to serve the people of New York as Deputy Chief of Staff within the New York State Executive Chamber, the defendant and her husband actually worked to further the interests of the Chinese government and the CCP,” United States Attorney Breon Peace said in a press release. Peace went onto to allege that “the illicit scheme,” Hu and Sun engaged in, “enriched the defendant’s family to the tune of millions of dollars.”

Sun, who has been employed, in some fashion, by New York state since 2012, was tapped by Chinese agents as early as January 2015, according to the indictment. Sun was selected by Cuomo as Global New York Trade Manager that January.

The DOJ alleged Sun received her first gift, tickets to the “Chinese National Traditional Orchestra concert at Carnegie Hall on or about December 18, 2015.”

The following April, a “PRC-based bank account” sent an account controlled by Sun and Hu $47,895.00 as a “payment for traveling.” Sun had previously gone on a trip to the Jiangsu province of China with a “work colleague” while employed by Global NY. Sun did not disclose that gift, nor the millions of dollars, salted ducks or “gifts, including tickets to shows, concerts and events” she received from Chinese officials from 2015 to 2023.

The indictment alleges that Hu “laundered unlawful proceeds through bank accounts opened in the name ocf a close relative but that were actually for HU’s exclusive use. To open these accounts, HU unlawfully used an image of the relative’s driver’s license.”

Sun was also engaged in negotiations with a Chinese official on the “viability of importing frozen seafood” from Hu’s Queens-based seafood company, Foodie Fisherman LLC.

“In written correspondence from 2018, CC-1 and CC-2 continued to assist the defendant Chris Hu’s PRC business affairs, as Sun had requested in return for her participation in the ACFROC meeting conference,” the indictment read.

Sun frequently met with Chinese officials inside the country and back home in the states, even being invited to the 70th Anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 2019, according to a picture of an invitation she saved digitally.

Sun was listed herself as the “Chairman of the Youth Committee of [Association 2]” in her registration for the event.

Sun was captured in a photo in an article entitled “Overseas Chinese Representatives Invited to Reception in Celebration of the 70th Anniversary of the Establishment of PRC, at the Great Hall of the People.”

When pressed on her attendance by FBI agents in January 2020, Sun “claimed that she was already in the PRC for a family visit and that a real estate developer from Long Island procured her a ticket for the event.”

Through her various governmental positions, Sun, allegedly influenced “government officials and the public regarding policy with respect to Taiwan at the request of PRC Consular officials.”

“I’m still in charge of all Asian affairs. A few weeks [ago] when we released a press release for international travel—I almost had a heart attack when we referred to Taiwan as a country. Thankfully I had the press team correct it immediately,” Sun wrote in a text message to a Chinese official in October 2020.

When the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office of New York, an entity that represents the government of Taiwan, attempted to schedule a meeting with Lt. Gov. Anthony Delgado, Sun told a colleague that “we’ve generally not taken these meetings.”

“(Hochul) did not [in her previous capacity] and I would recommend [the colleague] does not take this meeting. It is a very sensitive subject,” she added.

The Daily Beast reached out to TECO for comment but has yet to receive any at the time of publishing.

Then, when “an employee in the governor’s office wrote the defendant Linda Sun, indicating receipt of an invitation to recognize May 8 to 15 as ‘Taiwanese American Heritage Week,’” Sun wrote back, “please do not issue. Thank you.”

Sun complied when a Chinese official asked if she could “get [Company-1] name out there,” which had donated 1,000 ventilators to New York but “ultimately billed NYS government more than $700,000 for providing logistics services during the Spring and Summer 2020.”

Sun also asked a Chinese official to “share with me some talking points of things you want her to mention,” in regard to a Lunar New Years video being put out by Hochul’s office.

Hochul’s speechwriter had attempted to insert lines about the “Uyghur situation,” into the video but none made it in, as “she could not let Hochul mention the situation.” Sun sent the video to a Chinese official after its recording, to which the official wrote back, “it is very good.”

Hochul’s video, notably, also only refers to Lunar New Year as “Chinese New Year” despite it being celebrated by other Asian ethnicities who do not refer to it as “Chinese New Year.”

The FBI alleges, Sun and Hu, with the money they received from Chinese officials, purchased their $4.1 million Manhasset home, a $2.1 million Hawaiian condo, a 2024 Ferrari Roma, a Range Rover and more, according to the indictment.

“Sun never disclosed any benefits she received from representatives of the PRC government and the CCP to the New York State government, as she was required to do as a New York State government employee,” the indictment added.

FBI agents detained the couple, at their home in Manhasset on the North Shore of Long Island on Tuesday morning, according to the New York Times, and later confirmed by their indictments.

The Daily Beast reached out to the Chinese consulate in New York for comment but has yet to receive any at the time of publishing.

Federal agents searched the couple’s five-bedroom home in July. At the time, the FBI confirmed only that its agents “conducted court-authorized law enforcement activity in Manhasset” without further elaborating, according to Newsday .

Sun and Hu are expected to appear in federal court on Tuesday afternoon.

“This individual was hired by the Executive Chamber more than a decade ago,” a spokesperson for Gov. Hochul told The Daily Beast. “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.”

According to her LinkedIn profile, Sun held various roles in state government for nearly 14 years.

She first worked as the chief of staff to Grace Meng, a former assemblywoman who is now a member of congress. Sun then went on to have several jobs in the administrations of Hochul and her predecessor, Andrew Cuomo .

Sun was hired as a deputy chief of staff when Hochul took over from Cuomo in 2021, according to Newsday , before she left the role in September 2022 for a position in the New York Department of Labor. She was terminated from the department the following year.

She later worked as a campaign manager for Austin Cheng, a Democrat who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in New York’s third district.

Read more at The Daily Beast.