RIGHT SPEAK: Ex-Hochul and Cuomo Aide Accused of Working as Chinese Foreign Agent Slapped with New Bribery Charges; Former Hochul and Cuomo Aide Linda Sun Faces New Charges of Multimillion-Dollar COVID Scheme, and other C-Virus related stories

Ex-Hochul and Cuomo aide accused of working as Chinese foreign agent slapped with new bribery charges:

A former top aide to Gov. Kathy Hochul and ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo who allegedly worked as a Chinese foreign agent was hit with more federal charges Wednesday tied to a COVID-era kickback scheme worth millions.

Linda Sun and husband Chris Hu allegedly made off with as much as $8 million in the wide-scale fraud after she facilitated multiple contracts between New York state and two Chinese-based vendors for pandemic equipment, according to the US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

One of the companies was run by Hu, 40, and his business partner, and the other was operated by Sun’s second cousin, but the staffer never disclosed the personal ties, according to prosecutors.

Sun, 41, even allegedly doctored documents that showed the two companies were recommended by Chinese officials. Her husband is accused of keeping track of the expected ill-gotten proceeds on a spreadsheet under the title “Me.”

US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Joseph Nocella assailed Sun, of Manhasset, for enriching herself when the state “was at its most vulnerable at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

“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,” he said in a statement.

A lawyer for Sun said his client “vehemently denied” Thursday’s charges.

“The newest allegations continue the government’s trend of making and publicizing feverish accusations unmoored from the facts and evidence that we expect will actually come out at trial,” said attorney Jarrod L. Schaeffer.

When the pandemic first engulfed New York, Sun was part of a group of officials tasked with obtaining personal protective equipment and used her influence to work with the Chinese government to get the much-needed items. --->READ MORE HERE

Former Hochul and Cuomo aide Linda Sun faces new charges of multimillion-dollar COVID scheme:

Linda Sun, the former aide to Gov. Hochul and ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo accused of working as a Chinese agent, also schemed to steer $35 million in state contracts to two PPE vendors run by a cousin and her husband at the height of the COVID pandemic, according to new court filings.

Sun, 41, and her husband, Chris Hu, 40, were hit with the new allegations in a superseding indictment filed in Brooklyn Federal Court Wednesday.

Sun, who was working as Cuomo’s deputy chief diversity officer in 2020, was coordinating an effort to buy personal protective equipment and ventilators from China at the start of the pandemic, when the U.S. was grappling with PPE shortages.

The Chinese government recommended several vendors, and Sun falsely added two companies to that list of recommendations, one run by a second cousin, the other by Hu, according to the indictment.

She falsely claimed that both companies were recommended by the Chinese government, and on March 21, 2020, altered an email she received from a Jiangsu province official, adding her cousin’s surgical mask business, the feds allege.

A few days later, she sent an email to New York State procurement officials titled, “Already VERIFIED by Linda Sun,” telling them the company “came recommended by Jiangsu Chamber of Commerce” and that its surgical mask was the “gold standard,” according to the indictment.

The feds also found an internal state document on a computer owned by Sun and Hu that tracked PPE contracts, asking for each, “why did we do business with this vendor?” according to the indictment. The line for Hu’s company read, “referred by Chinese chamber of commerce” — but that referral was a fiction, according to the indictment.

Sun and Hu got $2.3 million in kickbacks for her efforts, the feds allege.

In all, the state wired the two PPE companies almost $45 million between March and June 2020. The feds found a spreadsheet in one of Hu’s electronic accounts that estimated he and Sun would score $8 million in profits from the deals, including the kickbacks, according to the indictment. --->READ MORE HERE