Former Hochul, Cuomo aide, Linda Sun, accused of being agent for China, faces new charges

A former gubernatorial aide from Long Island, accused of acting as an unregistered agent of China and steering state contracts to PPE vendors with whom she has personal connections during the COVID-19 pandemic, is facing new allegations, prosecutors said Monday.

Linda Sun, 41, a former aide to Gov. Kathy Hochul and former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, and her husband, Chris Hu, 40, pleaded not guilty in federal court in Brooklyn to a new superseding indictment including charges of failure to register as a foreign agent, visa fraud, bank fraud and money laundering.

Prosecutors said Sun engaged in political activities at the request of two unidentified individuals who were acting at the behest of the Chinese government in order to foster "a closer economic and political relationship between Henan Province and New York State."

The indictment alleged that Sun "fraudulently obtain[ed] letters that purported to be from the Executive Chamber inviting delegations of PRC government officials to visit New York, which the PRC government officials used to unlawfully obtain visas to enter the United States; arranging for visiting PRC government officials to meet with NYS officials," which included Hochul.

Prosecutors said that in exchange for Sun's political activities, the unnamed officials "rewarded her by aiding" her husband's business activities in China, including a frozen seafood shipping business.

Prosecutors said Sun took repeated trips to China, including a March 2017 trips with Hu to Henan province, which was funded by the Henan provincial government.

Sun also traveled to Beijing in September 2019, apparently to attend celebrations commemorating the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, prosecutors said. She returned to the United States through South Korea in October 2019.

Sun also received gifts such as tickets to the Chinese National Traditional Orchestra concert at Carnegie Hall in December 2015, prosecutors said, adding that Sun did not report any of the gifts or travel on her annual ethics forms.

Sun and Hu's attorneys did not comment Monday. They are scheduled to go on trial in November.

Prosecutors have alleged in an indictment that the couple laundered millions of dollars in proceeds from Chinese government officials in exchange for actions taken by Sun at the behest of those officials. The couple purchased their $4 million Manhasset mansion and a 2024 Ferrari with proceeds from the scheme, prosecutors have said.

Sun, who joined the Cuomo administration in 2012, took several actions at the request of Chinese government and Chinese Communist Party officials, including blocking representatives of the Taiwanese government from having access to Cuomo and later Hochul, in order to not upset the Chinese government, which does not recognize Taiwan as an independent country, prosecutors have said.

Sun, who worked as Hochul’s deputy chief of staff and later at the state's Department of Labor, attempted to facilitate a trip to China by a high-level New York State politician, and arranged meetings between Chinese and New York government officials, prosecutors have said.

Prosecutors said Sun, as one of the state government employees tasked with purchasing personal protective equipment, steered the purchase of PPE from two vendors — the Cousin Co. and the Associate Co. — that had ties to Sun and Hu, while claiming falsely that the companies were recommended by the Chinese government.

But one of Sun’s second cousins operated the Cousin Co., and one of Hu’s business associates operated the Associate Co., prosecutors said.

Sun was fired from the Department of Labor in March 2023.

Newsday reported days after the 2024 arrest of Sun and Hu that Sun played a critical role in retrieving supplies from China in the beginning of the pandemic. Sun was one of the staffers in Cuomo’s executive chamber working on a deal with China for supplies, which resulted in the donation of masks, surgical gowns and ventilators to New York, Newsday has reported.

The state was billed more than $700,000 by a company owned by a friend of Sun's husband that shipped ventilators to the United States, Newsday reported in 2024.

Prosecutors have said that Sun falsified a document to suggest that Chinese officials recommended the Cousin Co.

Hu and Sun got $2.3 million in kickbacks from the Cousin Co., prosecutors said. Hu did not report the payments, prosecutors said. 

By Nicole Fuller

nicole.fuller@newsday.com@NicoleFuller

Nicole Fuller is Newsday's senior criminal justice reporter. She began working at Newsday in 2012 and previously covered local government.