Linda Sun: Charges, Mistrial, and Retrial Prospects

Linda Sun is a former deputy chief of staff to New York Governors Andrew Cuomo and Kathy Hochul who was federally indicted in September 2024 on charges that she secretly acted as an agent of the People’s Republic of China while working inside the state’s Executive Chamber. The Linda Sun China case went to trial in Brooklyn federal court in late 2025 and ended in a mistrial on December 22, 2025, when jurors deadlocked on all 19 counts. Prosecutors have said they intend to retry her, and a retrial has been tentatively scheduled for January 18, 2027.¹²

What Prosecutors Say She Did

The indictment describes a years-long pattern in which Sun used her position inside two governors’ offices to advance the priorities of the Chinese government, while she and her husband, Christopher Hu, took in millions of dollars in benefits.³ The alleged conduct falls into three broad categories.

Blocking Taiwan and Shaping the Governor’s Messaging

Prosecutors said Sun systematically kept Taiwanese officials away from senior New York leaders. In written communications to Chinese officials, she boasted that she had “managed to stop all relationships between the TECO and the state” and “denied all requests from their office.” In July 2019, according to the indictment, she declined an invitation for the governor to attend an event with the Taiwanese president by inventing a scheduling conflict, then messaged a Chinese official: “I already blocked it.” She also told staff not to issue official recognition for Taiwanese American Heritage Week.⁴

On messaging, prosecutors said Sun previewed the governor’s 2021 Lunar New Year remarks with the Chinese Consulate and suppressed a speechwriter’s attempt to reference the Uyghur situation, telling a Chinese official she “could not let” the governor mention it.⁴ She was also alleged to have edited a draft statement to remove the phrase “Republic of China” to avoid “creating an international incident by recognizing Taiwan.”⁵

Unauthorized Proclamations and Visa Letters

The government said Sun obtained official gubernatorial proclamations for Chinese representatives without going through normal channels, and personally handed them out at consulate events.³ She also allegedly issued unauthorized invitation letters from the governor’s office that helped Chinese officials get U.S. visas, and prosecutors said those letters contained false statements. At trial, the government told jurors that Sun forged then-Lieutenant Governor Hochul’s signature on some of them.⁶ In March 2020, according to the indictment, she secretly added a Chinese consulate official to a private state government conference call about the pandemic and hate crimes.⁴

Steering COVID-19 Contracts

The financially heaviest allegations involve early-pandemic procurement. Prosecutors said Sun directed New York to buy protective equipment from a Chinese firm called High Hope, where her second cousin worked, and falsified documents to make it look like the Jiangsu Department of Commerce had recommended the company. The state entered a $5 million contract with High Hope for roughly three million masks.⁷ Sun’s second cousin allegedly paid Hu about $2.3 million in kickbacks. A separate associate company tied to Hu got a ventilator contract, and a spreadsheet from Hu’s account showed combined expected profits from both companies’ contracts with the state Department of Health of more than $8 million.⁸ A trial witness testified that a Cuomo executive order streamlining pandemic procurement made vetting “much less rigorous.”

What Sun and Her Husband Allegedly Received

Sun’s state salary never topped $145,000, prosecutors said, but the couple’s lifestyle told a different story.⁹ The indictment ties laundered proceeds to a $3.6 million mansion in Manhasset, Long Island, and a $1.9 million condominium in Honolulu.⁴ Trial evidence included a 2024 Ferrari Roma, a Mercedes GLB, a Range Rover, Hermès handbags, and a Patek Philippe watch. Investigators recovered $130,000 in cash from a safety deposit box in Queens and a silver Rolex from Sun’s parents’ home in Flushing. The FBI seized a Ferrari, a Rolex, and a diamond ring during a July 2024 search of the couple’s Manhasset home.¹⁰

Prosecutors also said Hu’s lobster export business, which shipped American lobsters to China, became highly profitable because of his wife’s connections to Chinese officials. He allegedly ran cash pickups, shell companies, and family-name payments, including a Signature Bank account in Sun’s mother’s name, to conceal the money.¹⁹ One of the more unusual alleged perks: between 2021 and 2022, Sun’s family received multiple deliveries of Nanjing-style salted duck prepared by the personal chef of the Chinese consul general.¹¹

The Charges

A federal grand jury in the Eastern District of New York returned an indictment unsealed on September 3, 2024, initially charging Sun and Hu with 10 counts. A superseding indictment filed in February 2025 expanded the case to 19 counts. The case, docket 24-CR-346, was assigned to U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan.¹²⁴

Sun was charged with conspiracy to violate and a substantive violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), visa fraud, alien smuggling, money laundering conspiracy, and additional money laundering counts.⁴ The superseding indictment added wire fraud, bribery, and conspiracy to defraud the United States.¹ Hu was charged with money laundering, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, misuse of means of identification, and tax evasion.³ Both pleaded not guilty and were released on bond.¹²

The FARA counts were brought under the statute’s registration requirements, not under 18 U.S.C. § 951, the more stringent statute sometimes described as espionage-adjacent.⁴

The Trial and the Deadlocked Jury

Jury selection began November 10, 2025, and the trial ran roughly six weeks in Brooklyn federal court.¹ Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander Solomon led the prosecution, presenting text messages, financial records, and circumstantial evidence to argue that Sun took bribes and benefits from Chinese officials in exchange for wielding her influence. Jurors saw messages in which Sun requested salted ducks from the consulate and Hu referred to illicit cash as “apples.” The government pointed to the Ferrari, the Hermès bags, and the real estate as proceeds of the alleged corruption.⁶

Defense attorney Kenneth Abell told jurors the prosecution had no “smoking gun” and no cooperating witness with direct knowledge of a criminal scheme. He said the government’s case required “huge jumps” in logic and argued that being wealthy is not evidence of a crime. Nicole Boeckmann, representing Hu, said there was no proof his lobster business succeeded because of his wife’s influence, and called the COVID-19 contract theory “illogical” because in early 2020 the frenzied demand for PPE meant those contracts were “there for the taking” without any bribery.⁶

On December 22, 2025, after what the court described as “extensive deliberations and re-deliberations,” the foreperson reported the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict on any of the 19 counts and that positions were “firmly held.” Judge Cogan declared a mistrial. Solomon told the court the government intended to retry the case “as soon as possible.”¹

What Happens Next

A retrial has been tentatively scheduled for January 18, 2027. A significant complication has emerged, though: Sun’s defense attorneys have warned the court they may have to withdraw because they have not been paid, the result of the government’s freeze on the defendants’ assets. Judge Cogan denied an earlier motion for a Monsanto hearing, which would allow the defense to challenge the asset freeze so seized funds could pay for legal representation, but encouraged the defense to file a new motion with additional evidence. The judge said he wanted to keep the existing counsel in place given their familiarity with the case.¹³

Who Linda Sun Was Inside State Government

Sun entered New York politics in 2008 with Grace Meng’s Assembly campaign and became Meng’s chief of staff. When Meng went to Congress in 2012, Sun moved to the governor’s office, initially as director of Asian American affairs and Queens regional representative, and held positions across state agencies under Cuomo over roughly 15 years.¹⁴⁵ After Hochul became governor in August 2021, Sun was appointed deputy chief of staff in the Executive Chamber, a senior role that put her in meetings with foreign dignitaries including the Chinese Consul General and the Chinese Ambassador.¹⁵ She moved to the state Department of Labor as deputy commissioner for strategic business development in September 2022.

Her downfall began in early January 2023, when she improperly requested three official state proclamations directly from a governor’s office employee, bypassing normal channels. About two weeks later a staffer filed a complaint with the New York State Inspector General. Inspector General Lucy Lang issued findings on February 22, 2023. Sun was terminated on March 1, 2023, and the Hochul administration referred the matter to federal law enforcement.¹⁶

A representative for Cuomo said Sun “had little to no interaction with the governor” during his administration and was “one of many community liaisons,” noting that her promotion to deputy chief of staff came only after Cuomo left office.¹⁷ Hochul called the alleged conduct “brazen,” “shocking,” and “a betrayal of two administrations in state government.”¹⁸

The Chinese Consul General

The indictment identified former Chinese Consul General in New York Huang Ping, labeled “PRC Official-1,” as a central figure in the alleged scheme, and said the salted duck deliveries came from his personal chef.¹⁹ After Sun’s arrest, Hochul called for Huang’s expulsion. Chinese embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu denied Huang had participated in any criminal activity, and Huang indicated he was leaving his post because his term had ended and he had reached mandatory retirement age. Hochul later said she had been informed the consul general was “no longer” at the New York mission.²⁰

1
CNN. Linda Sun New York Mistrial
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amNewYork. Linda Sun’s Defense Reveals They Have Not Been Paid
3
U.S. Department of Justice. Former High-Ranking New York State Government Employee Charged With Acting as Undisclosed Agent
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GovInfo. United States v. Sun, No. 24-CR-346
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PBS NewsHour. Ex-Aide to Two New York Governors Accused of Working as Agent of Chinese Government
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Courthouse News Service. There’s No Smoking Gun — Defense Makes Last Stand in Case of Accused Chinese Agent
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Courthouse News Service. Indicted Ex-Cuomo Staffer Had Leading Role in Securing COVID-19 Supplies, Witness Says
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U.S. Department of Justice. Former High-Ranking New York State Government Employee and Her Husband Charged
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New York Post. Alleged China Mole Linda Sun’s Lavish Life in $3.6M Mansion Revealed During Bombshell Trial
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The New York Times. Linda Sun China Trial
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CNN. China’s New York Envoy and the Investigation
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The New York Times. Linda Sun Arrested, Charged as Chinese Agent
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amNewYork. Linda Sun’s Defense Reveals They Have Not Been Paid, Warns They’ll Have to Withdraw for Retrial
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Barnard College. Bridge Between Worlds
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City & State NY. What Gov. Kathy Hochul’s Public Schedules Tell Us About Linda Sun
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New York State Inspector General. Inside the Downfall of Linda Sun, Accused Chinese Spy Who Worked for NY Governors
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ABC News. Linda Sun, Former Kathy Hochul Aide, Arrested
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Politico. Linda Sun Arrest and Hochul Approval
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Politico. Kathy Hochul’s Huang Ping Spy
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South China Morning Post. US Expels China’s Consul General in New York Over Beijing Agent Charge