A jury found a former NYC police sergeant guilty of operating as a de facto Chinese agent by threatening a fugitive living in the United States in order to persuade him to return to his native country to face prosecution.
According to federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, Michael McMahon was paid to monitor Xu Jin, a resident of New Jersey who had been charged with corruption by China, as part of “Operation Fox Hunt,” a global operation by Chinese law enforcement to repatriate suspects.
Mr. McMahon, who had reportedly started working as a private investigator after leaving the police force, said he had no idea he was actually working for the Chinese government, believing he was hired by a corporation looking to retrieve embezzled money instead.
According to prosecutors, however, Mr. McMahon was paid at a meeting with a Chinese official at a Panera Bread in Paramus, New Jersey, and knew the Chinese government was behind the campaign.
Tuesday’s trial in the US was the first of several concerning suspected Fox Hunt conspiracies. The Chinese embassy in Washington claimed that the defendants are not Chinese law enforcement and the allegations against them are malicious or based on rumors, while also adding that returning fugitives is a ‘fair cause’.
Although McMahon was found not guilty of conspiring to serve as a foreign agent, the jury did find him guilty of stalking. There is no defined time for sentence.
