Linda Sun (孙雯) has orchestrated a “pay-to-play scheme” that generated a stream of funds and gifts as she did favors for China and she’s managed the intake as a family affair. Sun’s links to 
officials and their intermediaries had a direct bearing on the success of her husband’s lobster-exporting business, which pulled at least $15.8 million into the US.
Sun and her husband, Chris Hu (胡骁), got rich as she levered proximity to two New York governors to help China. She was criminally indicted in Sep 2024 for illegally acting as a foreign agent and, along with her husband, was hit with financial charges including money-laundering conspiracies.
In addition to tracking large inflows from China, FBI agents turned up $405,000 in “cash of unknown provenance” at Sun’s home, her parents’ place and in a safe and deposit boxes. The indictment listed expenditures including a $4 million Long Island home, a $2.1 million Honolulu condo and jewelry and vehicles, such as a white 2024 Ferrari Roma. And much of the purchases were made in cash and sometimes in the names of family members or shell companies.
As a result of Linda Sun’s activities on behalf of the government, Chris Hu’s businesses made millions of dollars in China.
Hu’s New York City shop, Leivine Wine & Spirits, was a hub of activity, which is linked to alleged money laundering and an effort by Sun to influence city permitting on behalf of its landlord, George Xu, an area developer and political benefactor. The gala opening at the shop, in the Flushing neighborhood in the city’s Queens borough, was used to butter up local politicians such as Rep. Grace Meng (孟昭文).
The FBI uncovered a document showing how Hu tallied cash deposits into business and personal bank accounts, every one of them slightly less than the $5,000 threshold that require financial institutions to file federal suspicious-activity reports.
Shell companies in the names of other people not publicly identified were used to buy Sun’s Range Rover for more than $140,000 and the couple’s 47th-floor Hawaii condo. When a bank inquired about $1.5 million in deposits to an account in the name of a woman who appears to be Sun’s mother, a family representative described her as a sales agent and the wires as “sales commission and bonus”, though the woman had declared no income when she applied for US unemployment benefits.
wsj.com/us-news/what-n
officials and their intermediaries had a direct bearing on the success of her husband’s lobster-exporting business, which pulled at least $15.8 million into the US.
Sun and her husband, Chris Hu (胡骁), got rich as she levered proximity to two New York governors to help China. She was criminally indicted in Sep 2024 for illegally acting as a foreign agent and, along with her husband, was hit with financial charges including money-laundering conspiracies.
In addition to tracking large inflows from China, FBI agents turned up $405,000 in “cash of unknown provenance” at Sun’s home, her parents’ place and in a safe and deposit boxes. The indictment listed expenditures including a $4 million Long Island home, a $2.1 million Honolulu condo and jewelry and vehicles, such as a white 2024 Ferrari Roma. And much of the purchases were made in cash and sometimes in the names of family members or shell companies.
As a result of Linda Sun’s activities on behalf of the government, Chris Hu’s businesses made millions of dollars in China.
Hu’s New York City shop, Leivine Wine & Spirits, was a hub of activity, which is linked to alleged money laundering and an effort by Sun to influence city permitting on behalf of its landlord, George Xu, an area developer and political benefactor. The gala opening at the shop, in the Flushing neighborhood in the city’s Queens borough, was used to butter up local politicians such as Rep. Grace Meng (孟昭文).
The FBI uncovered a document showing how Hu tallied cash deposits into business and personal bank accounts, every one of them slightly less than the $5,000 threshold that require financial institutions to file federal suspicious-activity reports.
Shell companies in the names of other people not publicly identified were used to buy Sun’s Range Rover for more than $140,000 and the couple’s 47th-floor Hawaii condo. When a bank inquired about $1.5 million in deposits to an account in the name of a woman who appears to be Sun’s mother, a family representative described her as a sales agent and the wires as “sales commission and bonus”, though the woman had declared no income when she applied for US unemployment benefits.
wsj.com/us-news/what-n
Byron Wan@Byron_Wan
Sep 04 24
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Linda Sun and her husband Chris Hu
nypost.com/2024/09/03/us- 
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