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By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK (Reuters) -A former aide to New York Governor Kathy Hochul was charged on Tuesday with secretly acting as an agent of the Chinese government in exchange for millions of dollars in compensation and gifts, including meals of gourmet duck.
Linda Sun, 41, and her husband Chris Hu, 40, pleaded not guilty to criminal charges before U.S. Magistrate Judge Peggy Kuo in Brooklyn, after being arrested on Tuesday morning.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said that while working in state government, Sun blocked representatives of the Taiwanese government from meeting with officials, and sought to arrange for a high-level New York state official to visit China.
In exchange, Chinese government representatives allegedly arranged for millions of dollars in transactions for Hu, who had business activities in China.
Prosecutors said Sun and Hu used money to buy a 2024 Ferrari Roma sports car, as well as property on New York's Long Island and in Honolulu worth about $6 million, prosecutors said
Other gifts included Nanjing-style salted ducks prepared by a Chinese government official's personal chef and delivered to the home of Sun's parents, prosecutors said.
Hochul was not accused of any wrongdoing. Her office fired Sun in March 2023 after discovering evidence of misconduct, reported Sun's actions immediately to authorities, and has assisted law enforcement throughout the process, a spokesperson for the governor said.
Kuo ordered Sun released on $1.5 million bond and Hu on $500,000 bond. Their next court appearance is Sept. 25.
"Our client is understandably upset that these charges have been brought," Sun's lawyer Jarrod Schaeffer told reporters after the hearing.
A spokesman for China's embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment.
Sun became Hochul's deputy chief of staff in September 2021, after working in various state agencies.
The U.S. Department of Justice has in recent years cracked down on people accused of working on behalf of adversaries such as China and Russia, without registering with the U.S. government as required by law.
Last month, Chinese academic Wang Shujun was convicted in federal court in Brooklyn of collecting information about New York-based activists supporting democracy in China, and sharing his findings with Beijing.
Sun faces eight counts, including failure to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act and money laundering conspiracy. Hu faces three counts, including bank fraud conspiracy.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Mark Porter and Jonathan Oatis)
