10/24/2022
Justice Dept charges 2 Chinese intelligence officers with ‘egregious attempt’ to obstruct US prosecution of Chinese telecommunications firm;
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An eight-count indictment was unsealed today in federal court in Brooklyn charging a total of seven nationals of the People’s Republic of China (PRC)—Quanzhong An, his daughter Guangyang An, Tian Peng, Chenghua Chen, Chunde Ming, Xuexin Hou, and Weidong Yuan—with participating in a scheme to cause the forced repatriation of a PRC national residing in the United States.
The lead defendant, Quanzhong An, allegedly acted at the direction and under the control of various officials with the PRC’s government’s Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection (Provincial Commission)—including Peng, Chen, Ming, and Hou—to conduct surveillance of and engage in a campaign to harass and coerce a U.S. resident to return to the PRC as part of an international extralegal repatriation effort known as “Operation Fox Hunt.”
Quanzhong An and Guangyang An were arrested this morning and are scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon before United States Magistrate Judge Ramon E. Reyes, Jr. The remaining defendants remain at large.
Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York; Matthew G. Olsen, Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s National Security Division; and Michael J. Driscoll, Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), announced the arrests and charges.
“As alleged, the defendants engaged in a unilateral and uncoordinated law enforcement action on U.S. soil on behalf of the government of the People’s Republic of China, in an effort to cause the forced repatriation of a U.S. resident to China,” stated United States Attorney Peace. “The United States will firmly counter such outrageous violations of national sovereignty and prosecute individuals who act as illegal agents of foreign states.”
Mr. Peace thanked the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigations for its work on the case.
“The victims in this case sought to flee an authoritarian government, leaving behind their lives and family, for a better life here. That same government sent agents to the United States to harass, threaten, and forcibly return them to the People’s Republic of China.
The actions we allege are illegal, and the FBI will not allow adversaries to break laws designed to protect our nation and our freedom,” stated FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Driscoll.
As alleged in the indictment, the defendants participated in an international campaign to threaten and intimidate John Doe-1, a resident of United States, and his family to force John Doe-1 to return to the PRC. These efforts were part of “Operation Fox Hunt,” an initiative by the PRC’s Ministry of Public Security to locate and repatriate alleged fugitives who flee to foreign countries, including the United States.
The PRC government has targeted these alleged fugitives and their families to compel cooperation with the PRC government and self-repatriation to the PRC. The PRC government has taken such law enforcement actions on U.S. soil in a unilateral manner without approval, of or coordination with, the U.S. government.
Quanzhong An, who is a businessman operating in Queens, New York, and the majority shareholder of a hotel in Flushing, acted as the primary U.S.-based liaison for the Provincial Commission’s targeting of John Doe-1 and his family members, including his son, John Doe-2, both in the United States and in the PRC.
As part of the scheme, various PRCbased conspirators forced a relative in the PRC (John Doe-3) to travel from the PRC to the United States in September 2018 to meet with John Doe-2 and convey threats that were intended to coerce John Doe-1’s return to the PRC.
Yuan—John Doe-3’s superior at the PRC’s State Administration of Taxation—escorted John Doe-3 from the PRC to the United States, under the guise of a visit with a tour group.
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