US: Chinese agents paid bribes in plot to disrupt anti-communist Falun Gong movement

[Eugene]

Also: Illegal Agents Of The PRC Government Charged For PRC-Directed Bribery Scheme (U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York)

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Source: Associated Press

US: Chinese agents paid bribes in plot to disrupt anti-communist Falun Gong movement

By MICHAEL R. SISAK
May 26, 2023

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. authorities have arrested two suspected Chinese government agents in connection with an alleged plot by Beijing to disrupt and ultimately topple the exiled anti-communist Falun Gong spiritual movement.

John Chen and Lin Feng were charged in an indictment unsealed Friday with scheming to revoke a New York-based Falun Gong organization’s tax-exempt status and paying bribes to a undercover officer posing as a U.S. tax agent.

The undercover officer recorded multiple conversations with Chen, and investigators obtained a wire tap to record phone calls in which Chen and Feng discussed instructions they purportedly received from Chinese government officials, prosecutors said.

In one recording, prosecutors said, Chen referred to Chinese government officials as akin to “blood brothers” and, in another, he said Beijing would be “very generous” in rewarding the undercover officer’s help cracking down on Falun Gong’s non-profit status.

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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/falun-gong-china-bribery-transnational-repression-d840f64a815d30c33023b712fdc26eb2

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Source: U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York

Illegal Agents Of The PRC Government Charged For PRC-Directed Bribery Scheme

John Chen and Lin Feng Allegedly Furthered the PRC Government’s Transnational Repression Campaign Against the Falun Gong by Bribing a Purported IRS Official

Friday, May 26, 2023
For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York

Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Merrick B. Garland, the Attorney General of the United States, Lisa O. Monaco, the Deputy Attorney General, Matthew G. Olsen, the Assistant Attorney General for National Security, Christopher A. Wray, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), Paul Abbate, the Deputy Director of the FBI, Michael J. Driscoll, the Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office of the FBI, Donald Alway, the Assistant Director in Charge of the Los Angeles Field Office of the FBI, and J. Russell George, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (“TIGTA”), announced today the unsealing of a Complaint charging JOHN CHEN, a/k/a “Chen Jun,” a U.S. citizen and former citizen of the People’s Republic of China (“PRC”), and LIN FENG, a PRC citizen, with acting and conspiring to act in the United States as unregistered agents of the PRC Government, conspiring to bribe and bribing a public official, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The charges in the Complaint arise from CHEN and FENG’s alleged participation in a PRC Government-directed scheme targeting U.S.-based practitioners of Falun Gong — a spiritual practice banned in the PRC. CHEN and FENG were arrested today in the Central District of California and will make an initial appearance later today before Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge Pedro V. Castillo.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “John Chen and Lin Feng allegedly waged a campaign at the behest of the Government of the People’s Republic of China to influence a U.S. Government official in order to further the PRC Government’s repression of practitioners of Falun Gong. Efforts to manipulate and use the arms of the U.S. Government to carry out the PRC Government’s autocratic aims are as shocking as they are insidious. My Office will work vigorously to protect against malign foreign influences.”

Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said: “The Chinese government has yet again attempted, and failed, to target critics of the PRC here in the United States. We allege the defendants in this case attempted to bribe someone they thought was an IRS agent in order to further the Chinese government’s campaign of transnational repression in the United States. But the individual they attempted to bribe was in fact an undercover law enforcement agent, and both defendants were arrested this morning. The Justice Department will continue to investigate, disrupt, and prosecute efforts by the PRC government to silence its critics and extend the reaches of its regime onto U.S. soil. We will never stop working to defend the rights to which every person in the United States is entitled.”

Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco said: “The Department of Justice continues to expose the Chines government’s brazen attempts to perpetrate transnational repression, this time through attempted bribery. As highlighted by today’s arrests and charges of conspiracy, bribery, and money laundering, we will not tolerate efforts by the PRC or any foreign government to intimidate, harass, or undermine the rights and freedoms enjoyed by all who live in the United States.”

Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen said: “The Department of Justice continues to expose the Chinese government’s brazen attempts to perpetuate transnational repression, this time through attempted bribery. As highlighted by today’s arrests and charges of conspiracy, bribery, and money laundering, we will not tolerate efforts by the PRC or any foreign government to intimidate, harass, or undermine the rights and freedoms enjoyed by all who live in the United States.”

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Read more: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/illegal-agents-prc-government-charged-prc-directed-bribery-scheme