A former aide to New York governor Kathy Hochul (D.) and disgraced former governor Andrew Cuomo was arrested and charged on Tuesday with acting on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party, according to a federal indictment.
Linda Sun, Hochul’s former deputy chief of staff, was charged with "violating and conspiring to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act, visa fraud, alien smuggling, and money laundering conspiracy," according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York.
The FBI arrested Sun and her husband, Christopher Hu, at their $3.5 million Long Island home early Tuesday morning. Hu was also charged in the case with money laundering and fraud conspiracies. The couple is expected to appear before a federal judge in Brooklyn on Tuesday afternoon, the New York Times reported.
The FBI previously raided Sun’s multimillion-dollar Nassau County home in July for reasons undisclosed at the time, according to the Times.
Sun was, according to her LinkedIn, deputy chief diversity officer in Democratic governor Cuomo’s administration until he resigned in disgrace after being charged with a misdemeanor sex offense of "forcible touching."
From 2021 to 2022, Sun worked as the deputy chief of staff under Gov. Hochul, who has faced criticism for proposing a ban on gas stoves, allowing illegal immigrants to flood the "sanctuary state," and insisting high crime in the state is a "conspiracy."
In 2023, Sun was fired from her position in New York’s Department of Labor after officials found "evidence of misconduct," the Post reported.