Jury gets federal corruption case against Linda Sun, ex-gubernatorial aide, continuing deliberations Monday

The jury in the trial of a former gubernatorial aide from Long Island accused of working as an unregistered agent for China — while taking in millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks — deliberated for more than five hours Friday but failed to reach a verdict.

U.S. District Judge Brian M. Cogan told the jurors who will decide the fate of Linda Sun, 41, and her husband, Chris Hu, 42, to resume their deliberations Monday morning in Brooklyn federal court.

The government alleges that Sun advanced policies favorable to China while working as a top aide for former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Gov. Kathy Hochul. In return, Chinese officials showered the Manhasset resident with millions of dollars and other benefits, prosecutors said.

“Linda Sun betrayed the state of New York to enrich herself," Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander Solomon told jurors during closing arguments Tuesday. “She did the bidding of the Chinese government so that she and her husband, Chris Hu, could get rich."

Hu, Sun’s co-defendant, helped launder the money to avoid detection by law enforcement and tax agencies, prosecutors said. Sun also used her contacts in China to build her husband’s failing lobster export company into a multimillion-dollar business, prosecutors alleged.

Sun joined Cuomo’s administration in 2012 and later worked as Hochul’s deputy chief of staff and then at the state’s Department of Labor. She has pleaded not guilty to charges that include violating and conspiring to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act, visa fraud, bank fraud and other charges.

Hu also pleaded not guilty to money laundering conspiracy, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and other charges.

The jury sent three notes to Cogan. The first two asked for clarification of the visa fraud charge and evidence supporting the charge, which Cogan provided the jurors. Later in the day, the jurors asked for transcripts of the government’s and defense attorneys’ closing arguments. Prosecutors objected to the request and Cogan denied it.

In his closing argument, Solomon described how Sun used her position as a top aide to two governors to do favors for Chinese officials.

Sun blocked the president of Taiwan, which China views as a breakaway territory, from meeting with Cuomo in 2019, according to evidence presented at trial. She forged Hochul’s signature on invitations purporting to be from the state government that allowed Chinese officials to unlawfully obtain visas to travel to the United States, authorities said.

She also took credit from removing mentions of the Uyghurs, a central Asian ethnic group human rights activists say have been victims of political repressions in China.

Federal prosecutors also said Sun received millions of dollars in kickbacks and bribes by steering New York State contracts for personal protective equipment — PPE — to Chinese companies at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. Hu, prosecutors said, laundered that money through various bank accounts and failed to report it on tax filings.

Sun cultivated relationships with officials in the Henan provincial government that cut red tape with shipping and customs and helped obtain contracts for her husband's lobster company, Solomon said.

As a result of their illicit gains, the couple purchased a $4 million home in Manhasset, a condominium in Hawaii, Hermes bags, Rolex watches, high-end cars and other luxuries, prosecutors allege.

Defense attorneys said prosecutors failed to prove that Sun and Hu had violated federal and state laws. Sun’s attorney, Kenneth Abell, called the prosecution’s case a “hodgepodge of accusations."

He said the government provided no witness testimony or evidence that Sun worked at the direction of the Chinese government.

Nicole Boeckmann, one of Hu’s lawyers, told the jury that prosecutors failed to prove that Sun’s relationships with Chinese officials boosted Hu’s then-struggling business.

"The government," she said, "has fallen short. And your job is to make sure that justice is served."