Ex-New York policeman, 2 Chinese citizens found guilty of conspiracy in landmark US federal trial

A jury found a former New York City police sergeant and two Chinese citizens guilty on nine counts on Tuesday in a landmark federal trial involving a suspected Beijing-backed operation aimed at repatriating a Chinese fugitive living in New Jersey.

Charged in the nearly three-week trial were former police officer-turned-private investigator Michael McMahon and two Chinese citizens – New York residents Zhu Yong, 66, and Zheng Congying, 27 – for involvement in a three-year repatriation and intimidation effort against a Chinese fugitive on US soil.

All three were found guilty of conspiracy to commit interstate stalking. McMahon and Zhu were also found guilty on charges of acting as unauthorised agents of a foreign government.

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“I did everything by the book,” McMahon said outside the courtroom. “This is outrageous. What happened? Absolutely outrageous.”

The defendants will be sentenced at a later date on the charges involving conspiracy, stalking and acting as unauthorised Chinese agents. Zhu faces up to 25 years behind bars, McMahon 20 years and Zheng 10 years.

The case, heard by Judge Pamela Chen in the Eastern District of New York, is the first of several to come to trial involving alleged Operation Fox Hunt victims as the US Justice Department targets “transnational repression” by American adversaries, including China, against dissidents and fugitives.

The jury deliberated for two days and was interrupted at one point when a juror reported receiving anti-Chinese Communist Party literature in her postbox, although it was unclear whether this was targeted. She was allowed to return to the pool.

Prosecutors during the extended trial said Beijing through intermediaries hired McMahon in 2016 and 2017 to help track down Xu Jin and repatriate him.

Xu, a former Chinese government official, appeared on China’s most-wanted list in 2015 facing charges of bribe-taking.

The US case did not consider Xu’s alleged crimes in China, instead focusing on Beijing’s reported bid to harass and otherwise extend its prosecutorial muscle onto American shores.

Attorneys for the three defendants said they would appeal the decision, adding that the verdict was “inconsistent with the evidence at the trial”.

McMahon’s wife, former TV soap opera star Martha Byrne McMahon, sobbed when the verdict was read as her husband shook his head in disbelief.

“It’s shameful, absolutely shameful,” she said, visibly angry. “What a sad day for the US justice system.”

According to court documents and testimony, McMahon, 55, surveilled and drew on unauthorised police contacts to find Xu’s address, vehicle registration, social security number, bank account and overseas trip details, passing these onto Chinese agents.

Separately, Chinese operatives reportedly surveilled and harassed Xu’s daughter in California, jailed Xu’s sister in China and sent a video of Xu’s mother and sister crying and distraught, hoping to intimidate him into returning.

Their role in the alleged conspiracy included hiring McMahon and helping bring Xu’s ailing octogenarian father unannounced to the US “as bait” to flush out and convince Xu to return.

“I cannot believe the law enforcement of China’s government was using an elderly man to meet their goal,” Liu said.

China’s foreign ministry earlier criticised the Justice Department’s focus on Fox Hunt cases and said the US was the real culprit.

“China firmly opposes the US’s slanders and smears, its political manipulation, the false narrative of ‘transnational repression’, and blatant prosecution of Chinese law enforcement and cyber administration officials,” said spokesman Wang Wenbin in Beijing.

Xu’s repatriation was evidently considered such a high priority, the court heard, that a Chinese policeman and a prosecutor travelled to the US for four days to oversee the operation.

The effort ultimately proved unsuccessful after Xu contacted the FBI, spurring an investigation.

Xu testified that he believed he could be executed if he returned.

Chinese agents paid McMahon US$5,000 in cash in a Panera Bread restaurant in Passaic, New Jersey, and another US$14,000 in checks and wire transfers, much of that deposited into the personal accounts of McMahon, his wife and their son, who shares his name.

“Just because he conceals it badly, doesn’t mean it’s not an attempt to conceal,” said Craig Heeren, a lead US prosecutor. “They all participated in the same criminal conspiracy … Each agreed to harass the victim so he would return to China.”

The government also argued that an online search conducted by McMahon identified Xu as an Interpol fugitive wanted by Beijing and that he did not fully disclose the Chinese payments on his income tax returns.

Prosecutors said this showed that McMahon knew who he was working for and sought to mask activities he knew were illegal.

At one point after his arrest, Zhu was heard on tape outlining for investigators various Chinese agencies involved in the Fox Hunt programme, adding that whomever repatriated Xu would receive an award.

Many facts were not disputed by the three defendants. Zheng’s fingerprints were found on the threatening note and DNA on a cigarette butt. Surveillance footage and a photo put McMahon, Zhu and a Chinese policeman in the Panera outlet. And phone logs detailed the duration of conversations.

Rather, the defendants argued that they thought they were working for a Chinese company trying to recover embezzled funds and not the Chinese government, negating any charge of being foreign agents.

“They were used, cheated, misguided by a foreign government,” said Kevin Tung, Zhu’s lawyer. “They are also victims.”

McMahon’s lawyer argued that he was doing standard private investigator activity, informed local police of his surveillance activities and carefully invoiced his work – not activities by someone trying to hide. He added that accepting cash in Panera was not illegal.

Byrne McMahon said in an interview that growing US-China tensions, the Justice Department’s controversial China Initiative and unorthodox use of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or Fara, fuelled a biased case against her husband.

FBI warnings about China and other countries using private investigators were only issued years later, she noted.

“It was 2016, who knew?” she said of her husband’s actions. “He did everything by the book. To take legal PI work and arrest him for it is like taking a plumber and arresting him for fixing a pipe.”

Recalling McMahon’s arrest, she added: “They came at six in the morning and arrested him in front of his wife and kids. We’ve had a hellish two and a half years.”

Asian-Americans and civil rights experts have accused the China initiative, launched in late 2018 to stem economic espionage and trade secret theft, of engendering racial targeting and overzealous prosecutions. It was officially disbanded in early 2022, although some cases continue.

Xu’s alleged Chinese crimes were not considered in the federal case. According to a civil case filed in New Jersey in 2018 by privately-held Xinba Construction Group, Xu oversaw commercial development in Wuhan, later joining the city’s powerful planning board.

The civil suit alleged that Xu and Liu Fang – his wife and also on Beijing’s most wanted list – delayed projects to obtain kickbacks and that Xinba was still owed over US$10 million.

Xu and Liu in filings denied they extorted or looted any companies, according to the Wall Street Journal and ProPublica, and countersued for harassment. A judge rejected their claims, but it is unclear whether Xinba ever collected any monies from Xu and Liu.

Zheng’s lawyer said in opening remarks that Xu, who came to the US in 2010, was accused of stealing US$30 million from the Chinese government.

Beijing launched the Fox Hunt programme in June 2014 and reportedly repatriated some 680 people during its first year. The Skynet operation followed in 2015, focused on the money transferred by cadres overseas. The two programmes reportedly led to the arrest of 40 of China’s 100 most wanted in 2017.

But as more global scrutiny followed, amid accusations that China operated overseas police stations, and as China’s anti-corruption campaigns have intensified, Beijing has downplayed the programmes.

Ten people were accused in this case, filed in September 2020, although some of the defendants remain in China or have pleaded guilty to lesser charges.

“We have turned the PRC’s Operation Fox Hunt on its head,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Demers in announcing the case. “The hunters became the hunted.” (The Star)