A federal grand jury in Brooklyn returned a second superseding indictment, adding charges against former Deputy Chief of Staff Linda Sun and her husband and co-defendant, Chris Hu, for a fraudulent scheme involving the procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE) by the New York State (NYS) government at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As part of the scheme, Sun steered contracts to vendors with whom she had undeclared personal relationships. She and Hu received millions of dollars from the suppliers, including kickbacks, which Sun failed to declare to the NYS government.
Sun and Hu face new accusations for honest services wire fraud, honest services wire fraud conspiracy, bribery, and conspiracy to defraud the United States. Hu also faces tax evasion charges. The defendants will be arraigned on Monday, June 30, 2025.
The new accusations were announced by United States Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. for the Eastern District of New York, FBI New York Field Office Assistant Director in Charge Christopher G. Raia, and New York IRS-Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Charge Harry T. Chavis Jr.
“As alleged, Linda Sun not only acted as an 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 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.”
While working with the team of NYS government officials in charge of purchasing PPE, Sun reportedly used her position of influence with the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to organize the NYS government’s acquisition of PPE from PRC-based vendors.
In addition to vendors referred by the PRC government, Sun referred two vendors (the Cousin Company and the Associate Company) who were not recommended by the PRC government but had ties to Sun and Hu, falsely claiming that they were also referrals from PRC government components.
In truth, the Cousin Company was run by one of Sun’s second cousins, while the Associate Company was run by Hu and one of his business partners. Sun assisted the Cousin Company and the Associate Company in entering into various contracts with the New York State government, each worth millions of dollars.
Sun, the Associate Company, and the Cousin Company failed to disclose to the NYS government that Sun and Hu had relationships with the Associate Company and the Cousin Company or that Sun and Hu received a portion of the profits made by the Associate Company and the Cousin Company as a result of their contracts with the NYS government for PPE, including kickback payments from the Cousin Company.
Sun faked a paper claiming that the Jiangsu Department of Commerce had suggested the Cousin Company to conceal her link with the company from NYS procurement authorities.
Around March 20, 2020, Sun and other NYS government officials received an email from a US representative to the Jiangsu Trade & Business Representative Office in Albany, New York, recommending four PRC-based vendors who may offer PPE for the NYS government.
Sun forwarded herself a modified version of the email in which she replaced the first proposed vendor, a ventilator manufacturer, with the Cousin Company. She stated that the Jiangsu Department of Commerce recommended the Cousin Company.
Around March 24, 2020, in an email with the subject line “Already VERIFIED by Linda Sun,” Sun wrote to NYS procurement officials that the Cousin Company “came recommended by the Jiangsu Chamber of Commerce,” that the representative had “screened potential vendors,” and that the Cousin Company’s surgical mask was the “gold standard.” A Jiangsu Chamber of Commerce email promoting vendors appeared to quote material below Sun’s statement. However, the quoted text in the email was a revised version.
A spreadsheet on Sun and Hu’s personal computer showed that the Cousin Company paid Hu and Sun roughly $2.3 million in 2020 and 2021 in connection with the Cousin Company’s contracts with the New York State government. These kickbacks from the Cousin Company were taxable income. Hu did not record these payments as income to the US government, as required, or pay taxes on them on Forms 1040 for 2020 and 2021, which he filed on behalf of himself and Sun.
Hu laundered the Cousin Company’s income, in part by instructing the Cousin to make $1.5 million in payments in three $500,000 increments from another firm owned by the Cousin to U.S. bank accounts. On April 29, 2020, two days before the Cousin Company received the final $6 million payment from the NYS government, Hu set up these accounts in the name of a close cousin rather than himself.
Sun also arranged for the associate company to be a vendor on NYS government contracts.
On March 14, 2020, Sun sent an email with the topic “Mask suppliers” to other members of the NYS government’s PPE task force with procurement power, naming the Associate Company as a potential supplier. Sun then connected with the Associate Company via email to seek a price quote for the contract and provided an update to the NYS government on the contracts with the Associate Company.
The defendants’ computer contained an NYS internal document documenting multiple state PPE contracts, which had been broken out by the vendor. One of the document’s fields included, for each organization, an answer to the question, “Why did we do business with this vendor?” The associate company’s response to the query was “referred by the Chinese Chamber of Commerce.” However, there was no referral for the associate company.
According to a spreadsheet discovered in one of Hu’s electronic accounts, Hu planned to earn $8,029,741 from the contracts that the Associate Company and the Cousin Company had with the NYS Department of Health. Hu labeled the column for these anticipated profits with the word “me.”