Politics
Kash Patel Charges Top Democrat In Sprawling Corruption Scheme
A top aide to disgraced former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has been arrested as part of a sprawling FBI investigation into government corruption during the COVID-19 pandemic, FBI Director Kash Patel announced on Thursday.
Linda Sun, who served Cuomo until his resignation and later became deputy chief of staff to Gov. Kathy Hochul, was charged with running a “fraudulent scheme” involving the sale of personal protective equipment (PPE) such as masks and face shields during the height of the global pandemic, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.
Complicating matters is the allegation by Patel that Sun has also been working as an agent on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party.
“While Americans were locked down and desperate for PPE, Linda Sun and Chris Hu cashed in – allegedly lining their pockets while serving CCP interests,” Patel wrote on X. “This is corruption that endangered lives. The FBI will not tolerate public officials who sell out their country.”
Sun and her husband, Chris Hu, are accused of collecting millions of dollars by steering state contracts toward vendors where they stood to financially benefit. In addition to tax evasion, both are charged with honest services wire fraud, honest services wire fraud conspiracy, bribery, and conspiracy to defraud the United States.
Prosecutors say that Sun falsified papers purporting to be from Chinese government authorities, which authorized the sale.
“As alleged, Linda Sun not only acted as unregistered agent of the government of the People’s Republic of China, but also enriched herself to the tune of millions of dollars when New York State was at its most vulnerable at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic,” stated U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella.
“When 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. We 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.”
The investigation spanned multiple facets of the U.S. healthcare system, according to FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, who described it as “the largest healthcare fraud investigation, as measured by financial losses, in DOJ history.”
“The investigation spanned 50 federal districts, and resulted in nearly 3 billion dollars in false claims with over 15 million illegal distributions of pills. We seized 245 million dollars, we charged 324 defendants, 96 medical professionals, and the intended losses from these bad actors approached 15 billion dollars,” he wrote on X.
“Results matter. Talk is cheap. And this is not even the beginning of the beginning. If you’re stealing from the public, or violating your oath to serve, then we’re coming for you too.”
A lawyer for Sun vigorously denied the charges.
“The newest allegations continue the government’s trend of making and publicizing feverish accusations unmoored from the facts and evidence that we expect will actually come out at trial,” attorney Jarrod L. Schaeffer told the NY Post.
