![\"BREAKING:](\"https:\/\/news2.watchtowatch.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/388.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Linda Sun, the former aide to Gov. Hochul and ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo accused of working as a Chinese agent, also schemed to steer $35 million in state contracts to two PPE vendors run by a cousin and her husband at the height of the COVID pandemic, according to new court filings.Sun, 41, and her husband, Chris Hu, 40, were hit with the new allegations in a superseding indictment filed in Brooklyn Federal Court Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Sun, who was working as Cuomo\u2019s deputy chief diversity officer in 2020, was coordinating an effort to buy personal protective equipment and ventilators from China at the start of the pandemic, when the U.S. was grappling with PPE shortages.The Chinese government recommended several vendors, and Sun falsely added two companies to that list of recommendations, one run by a second cousin, the other by Hu, according to the indictment.<\/p>\n
She falsely claimed that both companies were recommended by the Chinese government, and on March 21, 2020, altered an email she received from a Jiangsu province official, adding her cousin\u2019s surgical mask business, the feds allege.A few days later, she sent an email to New York State procurement officials titled, \u201cAlready VERIFIED by Linda Sun,\u201d telling them the company \u201ccame recommended by Jiangsu Chamber of Commerce\u201d and that its surgical mask was the \u201cgold standard,\u201d according to the indictment.<\/p>\n
She feds also found an internal state document on a computer owned by Sun and Hu that tracked PPE contracts, asking for each, \u201cwhy did we do business with this vendor?\u201d according to the indictment. The line for Hu\u2019s company read, \u201creferred by Chinese chamber of commerce\u201d \u2014 but that referral was a fiction, according to the indictment.<\/p>\n
Sun and Hu got $2.3 million in kickbacks for her efforts, the feds allege.In all, the state wired the two PPE companies almost $45 million between March and June 2020. The feds found a spreadsheet in one of Hu\u2019s electronic accounts that estimated he and Sun would score $8 million in profits from the deals, including the kickbacks, according to the indictment.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen masks, gloves and other protective supplies were hard to find, Sun abused her position of trust to steer contracts to her associates so that she and her husband could share in the profits,\u201d U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella said Thursday. \u201cWe demand better from our public servants, and this office will continue to hold accountable public officials who enrich themselves at the expense of the New York taxpayers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sun was already charged in September with working as an agent of China during her time in state government and accused of helping shape state policy in exchange for millions in kickbacks and gifts \u2014 including specially cooked salted ducks for her parents.She was initially charged with violating and conspiring to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act, visa fraud, alien smuggling and money laundering conspiracy, while her husband was charged with money laundering conspiracy, as well as conspiracy to commit bank fraud and misuse of means of identification.<\/p>\n
The new charges include wire fraud, bank fraud, conspiracy to commit offenses against the U.S. and tax evasion. Sun and Hu are slated to be arraigned on the new charges Monday.The indictment comes after a June 16 hearing during which Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Brian Cogan pressed prosecutors to file their superseding indictment \u201cwithin a couple of weeks,\u201d so that Sun and Hu\u2019s defense lawyers could get documents and evidence through the discovery process as soon as possible. The couple\u2019s trial date was initially set for July, but delays over classified material clearances have stalled that schedule.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am trying this case in the fall one way or another,\u201d Cogan said, setting a new trial date of Nov. 3. \u201cOr it\u2019s never going to happen. Ever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sun and Hu\u2019s lawyers called the new charges a desperate attempt to keep the case on track.<\/p>\n
\u201cScrambling to develop new theories and shoving new charges into an indictment as trial looms is both unfortunate and telling, but it is also unsurprising given how this case has proceeded and the government\u2019s recent efforts to further delay trial in this case,\u201d Sun\u2019s lawyer, Jarrod Schaeffer, said Thursday.<\/p>\n
Michael Ball devastated as BBC host flooded with support after tragic d3ath\u00a0<\/p>\n\n