Jury selection begins in trial of ex-Cuomo aide accused of covertly working for China

Linda Sun was formerly a high-ranking aide in New York’s government. Now, she and her husband face potential prison time, accused of taking bribes from Chinese officials.

by Erik Uebelacker, Court House News,  November 10, 2025

BROOKLYN (CN) — Former New York state aide Linda Sun is set to stand trial this week on accusations that she acted as an illegal agent for the Chinese government during her time working under ex-Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Jury selection kicked off Monday in federal court in Brooklyn, where prosecutors are looking to get Sun convicted on charges including violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act, visa fraud, bank fraud and money laundering.

They claim that Sun, who joined the Cuomo administration in 2012, facilitated communications between New York state officers and the Chinese government, organized Chinese officials’ visits to the United States and blocked representatives of the Taiwanese government from access to high-level New York State officers.

In one instance, prosecutors say Sun secretly added a Chinese government official to a private New York state government conference call about the health response of the Covid-19 pandemic. In another, they say she altered a press release by cutting language that referred to Taiwan as a country.

Sun was supposedly paid handsomely for her efforts: prosecutors say she received multimillion-dollar properties in Long Island and Hawaii, a 2024 Ferrari Roma and even Nanjing-style salted ducks prepared by a Chinese government official’s personal chef.

In a superseding indictment filed over the summer, Sun is also accused of running a pandemic-era fraud scheme to take kickbacks by steering government contracts to her husband and cousin, who had ties to Chinese companies that produced personal protective equipment. Prosecutors say Sun failed to disclose the family ties and didn’t report the kickback cash.

“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," U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Joseph Nocella Jr. said when announcing the new indictment on June 26.

According to reports, New York was billed more than $700,000 by a company with ties to Sun’s husband that sent ventilators to the United States during the pandemic. Sun’s second cousin ran another scrutinized vendor — prosecutors say Sun falsified a document to suggest that vendor was recommended by Chinese officials.

Sun and her husband Chris Hu, a co-defendant, have pleaded not guilty to all charges. She is out on a $1.5 million bond, while Hu is out on a $500,000 bond. Both have travel restrictions.

Most of Sun’s charged conduct occurred while she worked in Cuomo’s administration. But after Cuomo resigned in disgrace in 2021 amid a flurry of sexual harassment accusations, Sun also worked under current Governor Kathy Hochul as her deputy chief of staff. She later moved to the state’s Department of Labor until she was fired in 2023.

Opening statements to the long-awaited trial — which was initially slated for June but delayed to the fall following the superseder — are expected to take place later this week. Until then, potential jurors in Brooklyn will be probed by the court for their availability and potential biases.

“Do you have any strong opinions or views about the People’s Republic of China?” reads one of the questions on the jury questionnaire.

“Have you or anyone you know ever participated, in any way, with any organizations that work on issues regarding Taiwan?” reads another.

Sun is represented by Jarrod Schaeffer of Abell Eskew Landau. Seth DuCharme of Bracewell, a former acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, is defending Hu.

The couple has drawn U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan, a George W. Bush appointee, to preside over their trial. The senior judge previously oversaw the case of Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who was sentenced to life plus 30 years following his 2019 guilty conviction.