Defense for Linda Sun, husband says prosecution hasn't proved corruption case against former gubernatorial aide

Prosecutors’ case against Linda Sun, the ex-gubernatorial aide accused of raking in millions of dollars and other benefits while working as an agent for China, has "huge holes," an attorney for the Manhasset resident said in a closing argument at Sun’s corruption trial on Wednesday.

A lawyer for Sun’s husband, Chris Hu, also attempted to hack away at the government’s case, saying that federal prosecutors did not offer any proof that his lobster export business received contracts worth millions of dollars because of Sun’s work on behalf of Chinese officials.

Both attorneys urged the jury of 10 women and two men to acquit Sun, 41, and Hu, 42, who have showed little emotion during two days of closing arguments. The attorneys said the case was built largely on emails, text messages and bank records. No witnesses, however, offered testimony that tied Sun or Hu to criminal activity.

"The government is trying too hard to fit the facts into the narrative, rather than the other way around," Sun’s attorney, Kenneth Abell, told the jury during closing arguments in federal court in Brooklyn.

Prosecutors 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.

Hu’s attorney, however, said there was no need for Chinese firms to pay off Sun. New York State and other governments were desperate for masks and other protective gear, buying up as much as the could as the death toll from the pandemic rose.

"Why would someone offer a bribe for a contract that was there for the taking?" asked Hu attorney Nicole Boeckmann, who later told the jury that the company Sun had contacted delivered quality products quickly at a fair price.

"It absolutely makes no sense," Boeckmann later said. "There was no competition."

Prosecutors also said that Sun bragged about preventing the president of Taiwan, which China does not recognize as an independent nation, from meeting with former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2019. But Abell told the jury the government did not give them all of the facts — no New York State governor had ever met with representatives of Taiwan, which China views as a breakaway province.

"Let’s be clear — Linda did not stonewall representatives of the Taiwanese government," Abell said.

Sun joined Cuomo's administration in 2012. She later worked as Gov. Kathy Hochul’s deputy chief of staff and 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 jurors are expected to begin deliberations after U.S. District Judge Brian M. Cogan gives them their instructions Thursday afternoon. The nearly monthlong trial began on Nov. 12.

The couple purchased a $4 million home in Manhasset, a condominium in Hawaii and a luxury sports car with the illegal proceeds, prosecutors alleged. Agents seized a Rolex watch worth more than $10,000, a pearl necklace and other items while searching Sun’s Manhasset home and a Flushing condominium owned by Sun’s parents. Sun's parents have not been charged in the case.

Abell told the jury that the couple’s lavish lifestyle doesn’t mean they are guilty of criminal activity. "It is not illegal to have money," he said. "It is not illegal to spend it."

Prosecutors who said Chinese officials showered Sun with money and gifts failed to tell the whole story, Abell said. Chinese officials offered Sun a jade bracelet as a gift, but she declined to take it, saying it was too valuable.

Abell asked the jury to put themselves in Sun’s shoes: She joined state government as a liaison with the state’s Asian American and Asian communities, got the Chinese government to donate ventilators during the pandemic, arranged for the purchase of millions of dollars worth of PPE — and is now accused of wrongdoing.

"The overwhelming evidence," Abell said, "is that Linda was doing her job."