On or about February 14, 2023, Linda Solar submitted to a voluntary interview with the NYS Workplace of the Inspector Common. Through the interview, Solar claimed to attend Asian group occasions in her private capability and never in her new capability on the Division of Labor.
Courtesy: United States District Courtroom E.D.N.Y.
A former prime aide to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul was arrested Tuesday on federal legal fees accusing her of performing as an undisclosed agent of China and the Chinese language Communist Occasion, and of laundering tens of millions of {dollars} for China.
Linda Solar, who had been deputy chief of workers to Hochul for a yr along with holding different state authorities positions, is charged with violating and conspiring to violate the Overseas Brokers Registration Act, visa fraud, alien smuggling, and cash laundering conspiracy.
Solar’s husband, 40-year businessman Chris Hu, additionally was arrested on fees of cash laundering conspiracy, in addition to conspiracy to commit financial institution fraud and misuse of technique of identification.
The couple, who had been arrested by FBI brokers at their dwelling in Lengthy Island, are scheduled to look Tuesday afternoon in U.S. District Courtroom in Brooklyn, New York.
Prosecutors say the couple laundered the proceeds of their alleged schedule to purchase a $4.1 million dwelling in Manhasset, Lengthy Island, a $2.1 million condominium in Honolulu, and luxurious cars that embrace at 2024 Ferrari.
An indictment alleges that the 41-year-old Solar, whereas working within the governor’s workplace beneath Hochul and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and in a number of state businesses, additionally acted as an undisclosed agent for the Folks’s Republic of China, the place she was born.
This an aerial view of the Saxony Courtroom, dwelling in Manhasset, New York belonging to Chris Hu and Linda Solar, July 24, 2024. Solar is the previous deputy chief of workers for New York State governor Kathy Hochul. The FBI searched the house on July 23, 2024.
J. Conrad Williams Jr. | Newsday | Getty Photographs
The indictment says that whereas “performing on the request of PRC authorities officers and the [Communist Party of China] consultant, Solar engaged in quite a few political actions within the pursuits of the PRC and the CCP. These included “blocking representatives of the Taiwanese authorities from accessing” the New York governor’s workplace, altering Hochul’s and one other politician’s messaging concerning points vital to China and the CCP, acquiring official proclamations from the governor for PRC representatives and making an attempt to facilitate a visit by Hochul to China, the indictment alleges.
She additionally allegedly organized ” for conferences for visiting delegations from the PRC authorities with New York State authorities officers.
Prosecutors stated that in return for these and different actions, Solar “acquired substantial financial and different advantages” from the Chinese language authorities and Communist Occasion.
These included “the facilitation of tens of millions of {dollars} in transactions for the PRC-based enterprise actions of Hu,” the press launch stated.
Solar additionally acquired tickets to occasions, “promotion of an in depth household good friend’s enterprise;
employment for Solar’s cousin within the PRC; and Nanjing-style salted geese ready by a PRC authorities official’s private chef that had been delivered to the residence of Solar’s mother and father,” the discharge stated.
Hochul’s press secretary Avi Small, in a press release to WNBC Information 4 in New York Metropolis, stated, “This particular person was employed by the Govt Chamber greater than a decade in the past.”
“We terminated her employment in March 2023 after discovering proof of misconduct, instantly reported her actions to regulation enforcement and have assisted regulation enforcement all through this course of,” Small stated.
Solar was working for the state Labor Division on the time she was fired.
In keeping with the indictment, Solar held a sequence of positions inside New York State authorities from 2012 till 2023, together with deputy chief of workers to Hochul for a yr, starting in September 2021.
