TWO UNREGISTERED CHINESE AGENTS FACE UP TO 20 YEARS IN PRISON
In late May, the United States Justice Department announced that two men were charged with acting as “unregistered agents of the People’s Republic of China,” (PRC), after they attempted to bribe a person believed to be an IRS official.
Apparently, the men wanted the IRS to conduct an audit of a religious group that engages in “Falun Gong,” a practice banned in China. And because the PRC was allegedly engaged in a “campaign of transnational repression,” the men supposedly offered, among other things, a $50,000 cash bribe if an audit were opened, together with 60% of any whistleblower award.
In a federal court complaint filed in the South District of New York, the two men were charged with “(1) one count of conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government without notifying the Attorney General and to bribe a public official, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison; (2) one count of acting as an agent of a foreign government without notifying the Attorney General, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison; (3) one count of bribing a public official, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison; and (4) one count of conspiring to commit international money laundering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.”
Attorney General Merrick B. Garland noted, by way of a written statement, “The Chinese government has yet again attempted, and failed, to target critics of the PRC here in the United States …. We allege the defendants in this case attempted to bribe someone they thought was an IRS agent in order to further the Chinese government’s campaign of transnational repression in the United States. But the individual they attempted to bribe was in fact an undercover law enforcement agent, and both defendants were arrested this morning. The Justice Department will continue to investigate, disrupt, and prosecute efforts by the PRC government to silence its critics and extend the reaches of its regime onto U.S. soil. We will never stop working to defend the rights to which every person in the United States is entitled.”
How's that for repressing repression?
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