Feds recount seizing cash, cars, jewelry from former Cuomo-Hochul staffer

BROOKLYN (CN) — Despite working for more than a decade on the modest salary of a New York state public servant, Linda Sun’s family was flush with high-life luxuries, according to federal investigators.

Sun’s bribery trial stretched into its second week on Monday, where FBI agents recalled seizing sports cars, expensive watches and more than $100,000 from Sun and her family. Sun is accused of violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act by doing favors for the Chinese government in order to cash in on her position as an aide for former Governor Andrew Cuomo and current Governor Kathy Hochul.

Among her purported rewards was a multimillion-dollar house in Long Island.

“There was a bar area, there was a golf simulator,” FBI Special Agent Edward Tam said of the home’s basement.

Tam saw it in person last July, when he and a team of federal investigators raided Sun and her husband’s house, located in a gated community in Manhasset, New York. He said the bureau picked up the 2024 Ferrari Roma that was sitting in their driveway, which prosecutors claim was one of the many benefits Sun received in exchange for her favors for China.

Also seized was a 2022 Mercedes GLB SUV, but Tam said investigators did not nab an additional Audi SUV that was on the property.

Inside the house, the FBI found boxes of orange Hermes handbag boxes, seizing at least one designer bag, which jurors saw in court on Monday. Prosecutors also showed the jury a Patek Philippe watch with a receipt indicating it was sold to Chris Hu, Sun’s husband and co-defendant, who prosecutors claim used his wife’s connections to illegally keep his seafood company afloat and helped launder her supposed kickbacks.

In addition to Sun’s home, federal investigators executed a search warrant on her parents’ New York City house, too. There, a roughly five-hour raid culminated in the FBI seizing a silver Rolex watch — which Sun’s father was wearing when the investigators showed up — and a pearl necklace, which happened to be in the same box as a business card of a Chinese trade representative.

Investigators also searched a safety deposit box belonging to Sun’s parents, where they found more than $130,000 in cash, all in hundred-dollar bills.

Some of the seized items had more of a personal touch. Tam recalled finding an invitation for a Lunar New Year celebration addressed to “the Honorable Linda Sun.” His team also seized a letter from the Chinese consulate in New York to Sun, which read: “Your personal friendship and kind support will always be cherished.”

Tam noted on cross-examination that investigators were instructed to “take documents related to the People’s Republic of China” at Sun’s house, which resulted in the FBI scooping up what appeared to be a Chinese New Year advertisement from the American Dream mall in New Jersey.

At the trial’s opening last week, Sun’s defense attorney Jarrod Schaeffer chalked his client’s purported presents up to Chinese culture, calling gifts “a common cultural and political practice” in the country.

“You will see that the governor got gifts and benefits,” Schaeffer said.

Sun and Hu face a monthlong trial for charges including violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act, visa fraud, bank fraud and money laundering. Most of Sun’s charged conduct occurred while she worked in Cuomo’s administration prior to his 2021 resignation.

But Sun worked under Hochul, too, rising to her deputy chief of staff. Prosecutors say she forged Hochul’s signature on letters to Chinese officials to invite them to New York.

Sun and Hu are being tried together. They pleaded not guilty to all charges against them and are out on a $1.5 million bond and a $500,000 bond, respectively.

The trial will resume on Tuesday, when Sun’s mom is expected to testify. According to the indictment, Sun’s parents were wined and dined with their daughter during a 2017 trip to Zhengzhou funded by the Chinese government.

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