With the trial wrapped up, jurors are deliberating in the criminal trial of three men accused of trying to scare a former Chinese official former Wuhan city official Xu Jin into returning to his homeland. Prosecutors say this was a scheme puppeteered by Beijing.
The defendants are Michael McMahon, a retired sergeant, 55; Zhu Yong, who also goes by Jason Zhu, 66; and Zheng Congying, 27. The latter two are Chinese citizens with green cards. The men are accused of playing crucial roles in Operation Fox Hunt, which is a global initiative by the Chinese government that the Justice Department contends is part of the authoritarian government’s effort to control its diaspora.
China has denied threatening people to coerce them to return. The US and China don’t have an extradition treaty.
According to the case, Zhu helped hire McMahon to find Xu and pass along information for the search. McMahon, a private investigator and ex-NYPD member, tailed the ex-official, rooted out his New Jersey home address, and searched government databases for information on his family.
Zheng knocked on Xu’s door, circled the home, and then taped up a note telling Xu to submit to imprisonment in China in order to assure the well-being of his wife and children, who were still in the country.
The men didn’t testify, but their lawyers said the three believed they were aiding a private entity and not China’s regime.
“They are also victims. They are used,” said Zhu’s lawyer, Kevin Tung, told the Brooklyn federal court jury during Wednesday’s summations. “They are used by a very sophisticated government.”
McMahon’s lawyer, Lawrence Lustberg, said the sleuth had been “deceived” by Chinese contacts who referred to a “company” as the ultimate client for the work.
Besides the men on trial, eight other people also have been indicted in this case. Three have pleaded guilty; five are believed to be in China.
In March, the FBI and the National Counterintelligence and Security Center issued a public bulletin warning that regimes like China and Iran were attempting to use American local police and private investigators to target dissidents.
