Ex-gubernatorial aide Linda Sun, of Manhasset, 'betrayed the State of New York,' federal prosecutor says

The former New York gubernatorial aide from Long Island who is accused of illegally influencing state government in favor of China in exchange for millions of dollars, was "for sale" and motivated by greed when she betrayed her duty as a public servant, a prosecutor said in opening statements Wednesday in federal court in Brooklyn.

"This is a case about betrayal and greed," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Shami. "Betrayal by a public official, Linda Sun, who betrayed the State of New York. ... And greed by her husband, Chris Hu, who exploited his wife's high-level New York State job."

"Her loyalty was for sale and the Chinese government was willing to pay Linda Sun," Shami said.

Sun, 41, has pleaded not guilty to charges including violating and conspiring to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act, visa fraud, bank fraud, alien smuggling and money laundering, prosecutors said. Hu, 42, also has pleaded not guilty to money laundering conspiracy, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and misuse of identification, prosecutors have said.

Prosecutors alleged that Sun and Hu received millions of dollars from China for Sun's actions, including business for Hu's China-based seafood business. The couple purchased a $4 million Manhasset home, a condominium in Hawaii and a luxury sports car with the illegal proceeds, prosecutors said.

Sun's defense attorney, Jarrod L. Schaeffer, in his opening statement, argued that Sun, who was an aide to both Gov. Kathy Hochul and Andrew M. Cuomo during her decadelong career in state government, was simply doing her job, which was to maintain relations with the Chinese government and to advise New York State officials, including the governor, to avoid political mishaps that could hurt those relations.

Schaeffer called the charge of failing to register as a foreign agent "nonsense," adding that she is "an American" and "a New Yorker" who came to the United States from her native China as a child.

"Nothing is going to show that Linda was working for China," Schaeffer said.

"The simple answer is that it was her job," Schaeffer said. "It was her job to communicate" with Chinese officials "and not alienate New York voters."

Sun was charged simply because "Linda's advice on certain issues was too favorable to China," he said.

"Did she sometimes advise state officials? Sure, but not because she was working for China, but because she was doing her job," he said.

Schaeffer said there was "no evidence that Linda did anything because China asked her to."

From 2015 to 2023, Sun worked for state government and "was acting at the direction of the Chinese government" in her communications with Chinese consulate officials and two other men who were working on behalf of the Chinese government.

"She did things that the Chinese government wanted her to do," Shami said.

Sun, who joined the Cuomo administration in 2012, prevented representatives of the Taiwanese government from having access to Cuomo and later Hochul, in order to please the Chinese government, which does not recognize Taiwan as an independent country, prosecutors said.

Sun, who worked as Hochul’s deputy chief of staff and later at the state's Department of Labor, also allegedly obtained official New York State proclamations for Chinese government representatives without proper authorization and arranged meetings for visiting delegations from the Chinese government, prosecutors said.

Sun also forged Hochul's signature on invitations purporting to be from state government, inviting officials from the Chinese government to visit New York, which the Chinese officials used to unlawfully obtain visas to travel to the United States, prosecutors said.

Sun traveled to China multiple times as part of the scheme, including a March 2017 trip with Hu to Henan province, which was funded by the Henan provincial government, prosecutors said.

Sun also traveled to Beijing in September 2019 to attend celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, prosecutors said.

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.

In exchange for Sun's political activities, Chinese officials rewarded her by steering business to her husband's business activities in China, including a frozen seafood shipping business.

Schaeffer conceded that Sun "did not do a great job of filling out every form the government required her to."

In China, it's "common cultural and political practice" for government officials to give gifts, said Schaeffer, who called the assertion that salted ducks prepared by the personal chef of a Chinese official and delivered to Sun's parents equated to a bribe was "just silly."

Shami said Sun further "betrayed the people of New York when they were the most vulnerable" during the COVID-19 pandemic, when prosecutors alleged that she steered the state's purchase of personal protective equipment to two vendors — the Cousin Company, operated by one of Sun's second cousins, and the Associate Company, operated by Hu and one of Hu’s business associates.

Hu and Sun were paid $2.3 million in kickbacks from the Cousin Company, prosecutors have alleged.

Schaeffer dismissed the connection as a "distant cousin who was a sales manager at the company," and said Sun was responsible for coordinating the state's purchase of those crucial items and "worked around the clock."

"This New Yorker was working for New York," Schaeffer said, gesturing to Sun.

Hu's attorney, Nicole Boeckmann, in her opening statement, said the state "put tremendous pressure" on Sun to get PPE from China.

The equipment was "delivered on time at a fair price," Boeckmann said.

There was no kickback scheme because there was not competition for a contract to deliver PPE, she said.

"The governor was on the news everyday begging for it," she said.

Hu, who came to the United States from China at age 8 and studied at Stony Brook University, started his seafood exporting business in China in 2016, but once the pandemic hit, "exporting seafood was no longer viable." So in mid-April 2020, he opened his own medical supply company, Boeckmann said.

His business operated in the town where he grew up, which is some 1,000 miles away from Henan province, Boeckmann said.

Boeckmann urged the jury to consider the evidence that the government doesn't have, including images of "clandestine meetings" and wiretaps of Sun "asking for a bribe or a kickback" or the testimony of "an insider or co-conspirator."

She asked: "Where is the star witness?"

The trial continues Thursday in federal court in Brooklyn.

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.