Long Islanders Charged In Chinese Government Spying Scheme: ICYMI

Editor's note: This article was originally published on Thursday, July 7, 2022.

OYSTER BAY, NY — Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn have indicted five people, including two from Long Island, for their involvement in a transnational repression scheme to silence critics of the Chinese government, officials announced Thursday.

Three of the defendants — Fan "Frank" Liu, of Jericho, Matthew Ziburis, of Oyster Bay, and Qiang "Jason" Sun, of China — are accused of targeting U.S. residents "whose political views and actions are disfavored" by the Chinese government, according to federal prosecutors. In one instance, the trio reportedly plotted to destroy the artwork of a Chinese national living in California who criticized the Chinese government.

Posing as an art dealer interested in buying the dissident's artwork, Ziburis secretly planted surveillance cameras and GPS devices at the artist's workplace and in his car, allowing Sun to spy on him from China, officials said. All three defendants are also accused of making similar plans to install surveillance equipment at the residences and on the vehicles of two other dissidents.

The other two defendants indicted in this case were Craig Miller, who has worked for the Department of Homeland Security for 15 years, and Derrick Taylor, a retired DHS agent now working as a private investigator in California.

Officials believe they destroyed evidence after they were approached by FBI agents regarding their use and dissemination of confidential information from a restricted law enforcement database about U.S.-based dissidents from China.

Liu and Sun are accused of using that information in the transnational repression scheme.

All of the defendants have been arrested except Sun, who remains at large, federal prosecutors say.