LI Couple Made Millions In COVID-19 Pandemic Scheme, New Charges Allege

BROOKLYN, NY — A federal grand jury returned a second superseding indictment that add charges to a husband and wife from Manhasset for a fraudulent personal protective equipment scheme at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, prosecutors announced.

New charges against Linda Sun and her husband, Chris Hu, include honest services wire fraud, honest services wire fraud conspiracy, bribery and conspiracy to defraud the United States. Additionally, Hu is charged with tax evasion, Joseph Nocella, Jr., U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District said.

As part of the scheme, Sun steered contracts to vendors with whom she had undisclosed personal connections, and she and Hu received millions of dollars from the vendors, including some in the form of kickbacks, which Sun did not disclose to the NYS government, prosecutors said.

They will be arraigned on Monday.

“As alleged, Linda Sun not only acted as unregistered agent of the government of the People’s Republic of China, but also enriched herself to the tune of millions of dollars when New York State was at its most vulnerable at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Nocella. “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."

As alleged in the superseding indictment, at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic and while working with the team of NYS government employees responsible for obtaining PPE, Sun used her position of influence with the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to coordinate the New York State government’s purchase of PPE from vendors located in the PRC, prosecutors said.

In addition to certain vendors referred by the PRC government, Sun referred two vendors (the Cousin Company and the Associate Company) that were not recommended by the PRC government but rather had ties to Sun and Hu, while claiming falsely that these, too, were referrals from components of the PRC government. In reality, the Cousin Company was operated by one of Sun’s second cousins,
and the Associate Company was operated by Hu and one of Hu’s business associates,
Nocella said.

In connection with the Cousin Company contracts with the state government, a spreadsheet maintained on Sun and Hu’s personal computer indicated that the Cousin provided payments to Hu (and Sun) totaling approximately $2.3 million during 2020 and 2021. Hu did not report these payments as income to the U.S. government, as required, or pay taxes on this income, the U.S. attorney said.

“During a global pandemic, Linda Sun allegedly leveraged her authority within the New York State government to secretly steer contracts to selective PPE vendors in exchange for millions of dollars in kickbacks to her and her husband,” stated FBI Assistant Director in Charge Raia. “This alleged scheme not only created an unearned and undisclosed benefit for the defendants and their relatives, but it also exploited the state's critical need for resources in a health crisis."