The trial of Linda Sun, a former top aide to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and her husband, Chris Hu, began on Wednesday.
Sun has an impressive resume, including Deputy Chief Diversity Officer for Cuomo, Director of External Affairs of Global NY for Empire State Development, Director of Asian American Affairs, and Queens Regional Representative.
Sun faces accusations of working as a secret agent for China in exchange for lavish payoffs.
Sun and Hu face charges of fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering.
“Her loyalty was for sale, and the Chinese government, which wanted to influence the New York government, was willing to pay her to do their bidding,” Assistant US Attorney Amanda Shami said in the Brooklyn court, as reported by The New York Post. “Linda Sun was for sale.”
Jarrod Schaeffer, Sun’s attorney, admitted she accepted gifts and “steered New York leaders away from touchy topics for China.”
Those moves didn’t make Sun an agent for China, Schaeffer claimed. Instead, it’s just politics!
I wrote about Sun and Hu when authorities arrested them in September 2024.
Here’s a refresher!
Sun supposedly invited officials to government conference calls about COVID-19 responses, but kept them off the guest list since none of them were open to the public. They had to keep their phones on mute.
Sun also got Politician-1 (who is probably Cuomo) to accept ventilators from Chinese foundations. The PRC officials pushed Sun to force the politician to privately and publicly thank the Chinese government and the PRC official responsible for the transactions.
In January 2021, one of the PRC officials told Sun to persuade Politician 2 (likely Hochul) to make a video about the Lunar New Year. Sun asked for the talking points and themes, which she handed to Hochul’s speechwriter.
The speechwriter wanted to include the Uyghur concentration camps in China, but Sun immediately struck them. The two ended up arguing over the talking point.
Hochul ended up not mentioning the Uyghur concentration camps in her video and speech.
The government accused Hu of laundering “unlawful proceeds through bank accounts opened in the name of a close relative but that were actually for HU’s exclusive use.” He had to open these accounts using “an image of the relative’s driver’s license.”
The government also claimed that Sun and her husband received many benefits from China for her actions:
In return for these and other actions, the defendant LINDA SUN received substantial economic and other benefits from representatives of the PRC government and the CCP, including the facilitation of millions of dollars in transactions for the PRC-based business activities of SUN’s husband, the defendant CHRIS HU; travel benefits; tickets to events; promotion of a close family friend’s business; employment for SUN’s cousin in the PRC; and Nanjing-style salted ducks prepared by PRC Official-1’s personal chef that were delivered to the residence of SUN’s parents. SUN and HU laundered the monetary proceeds of this scheme to purchase, among other items, real estate property in Manhasset, New York for $3.6 million, a condominium in Honolulu, Hawaii for $1.9 million, and various luxury automobiles, including a 2024 Ferrari. SUN never disclosed any benefits she received from representatives of the PRC government and the CCP to the NYS government, as she was required to do as a NYS government employee.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY