{"id":1939485,"date":"2023-05-27T11:25:23","date_gmt":"2023-05-27T15:25:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/doj-charges-2-suspected-chinese-agents-for-targeting-falun-gong-in-us\/"},"modified":"2023-05-27T16:02:25","modified_gmt":"2023-05-27T20:02:25","slug":"doj-charges-2-suspected-chinese-agents-for-targeting-falun-gong-in-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/doj-charges-2-suspected-chinese-agents-for-targeting-falun-gong-in-us\/","title":{"rendered":"2 Chinese agents charged by DOJ for targeting Falun Gong in US."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdoj-charges-2-suspected-chinese-agents-for-targeting-falun-gong-in-us%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1939485&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Two Men Charged with Attempting to Bribe Public Official to Help CCP \u2018Topple\u2019 Falun Gong<\/h2>\n<div class=\"post_content\">\n<div class=\"aplayer_app\" data-source=\"https:\/\/vs1.youmaker.com\/assets\/2023\/0526\/0a0f60e7-22ca-4e9d-a3b5-49ce3977819f\/audio.mp3?length=6897069&#038;duration=575\"><\/div>\n<p>It&#8217;s a shocking and insidious scheme. Federal prosecutors have charged two men with attempting to bribe a public official with tens of thousands of dollars in a scheme to help the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) \u201ctopple\u201d the persecuted faith group Falun Gong. The action marks the first prosecution by U.S. authorities to deter the Chinese regime from targeting Falun Gong\u2014a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/doj-charges-2-suspected-chinese-agents-for-targeting-falun-gong-in-the-us\/\" title=\"2 Chinese agents charged by DOJ for targeting Falun Gong in US.\">meditative practice featuring truthfulness<\/a>, compassion, and tolerance\u2014in the United States.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cEfforts to manipulate and use the arms of the U.S. Government to carry out the PRC Government\u2019s autocratic aims are as shocking as they are insidious,\u201d said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams in a statement announcing the charges.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>John Chen, a 70-year-old U.S. citizen born in China, and Lin Feng, a Chinese citizen aged 43, attempted to \u201cmanipulate the IRS Whistleblower Program, through bribery and deceit,\u201d in an attempt to strip a Falun Gong-run entity of its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/leah-remini-says-her-16-year-old-daughter-keeps-her-woke\/\" title=\"Leah Remini Says Her 16-Year-Old Daughter Keeps Her \u2018Woke\u2019\">tax-exempt status<\/a>, according to court filings unsealed on May 26.<\/p>\n<h3>Charges and Arrests<\/h3>\n<p>The two face charges of conspiracy, bribery, and money laundering. Chen was held without bond, and the U.S. Marshals Service will transport him to New York. Feng\u2019s detention hearing was postponed until June 1. He will remain in custody until then, a spokesman for the United States Attorney\u2019s Office in Los Angeles told The Epoch Times.<\/p>\n<p>Chen\u2019s lawyer declined to comment.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5295673\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2023\/05\/27\/id5295673-Roybal-center-1200x900.jpg\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2023\/05\/27\/id5295673-Roybal-center-1200x900.jpg\" alt=\"The Edward R. Roybal Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Los Angeles, California, on May 26, 2023.\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><\/noscript><\/figcaption><\/a><br \/>\n\t<\/figure>\n<h3>\u2018Blood Brothers\u2019<\/h3>\n<p>From January to May, Chen and Feng worked under the direction of Chinese officials to engage in a bribery campaign, according to the DOJ. Discussing the plan in a recorded call around Jan. 21, Chen indicated his goal to achieve the Chinese regime\u2019s aim to \u201ctopple\u201d Falun Gong, noting that the Chinese \u201cleadership\u201d would be \u201cvery generous\u201d in funding the illicit payments, according to the court document.<\/p>\n<p>Over the course of the scheme, Chen also warned a contact, who introduced him to the purported tax official and was cooperating with the FBI, to keep the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/doj-charges-2-suspected-chinese-agents-for-targeting-falun-gong-in-us\/\" title=\"2 Chinese agents charged by DOJ for targeting Falun Gong in US.\">illicit payment plan discreet<\/a>, according to the court document.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you say pay money, damn it, it\u2019ll leave a trail along the way, and it\u2019ll be troublesome,\u201d Chen allegedly said.<\/p>\n<p>The identity of the Chinese official remains sealed, but Chen, in an intercepted call while discussing the scheme, said the official is \u201cthe one that is always in charge of these matters,\u201d the complaint said. The complaint noted that the repression efforts targeting Falun Gong are centralized from the \u201c610 Office,\u201d an extralegal body that for many years maintained a principal location in China\u2019s northeastern megacity Tianjin.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey are like blood brothers. We started this fight against [the founder of the Falun Gong] twenty, thirty years ago. They are always with us,\u201d Chen allegedly said. He said \u201cthe money is from all of us,\u201d which the FBI investigator believes refers to the Chinese authorities.<\/p>\n<h3>DOJ Indictments<\/h3>\n<p>The DOJ indictments also followed the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/fbi-arrests-2-for-operating-secret-chinese-police-station-in-nyc_5200542.html\">arrest of two individuals<\/a> allegedly running a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/china-expands-its-secret-police-stations-around-the-world\/\" title=\"China Expands Its Secret Police Stations Around the World\">secret police station<\/a> in New York for Beijing. One of the men, according to the Justice Department, organized counter-protests in Washington to demonstrations from Falun Gong practitioners during Chinese leader Xi Jinping\u2019s U.S. visit in 2015.<\/p>\n<p>During another recorded call a week later, Chen emphasized that \u201cafter this-this-this thing is done,\u201d according to the complaint, \u201creward for work will surely be given at that time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In early February, Chen and Feng submitted the whistleblower complaint to an IRS office in New Windsor, New York, which Chen would later claim to authorities to be for the benefit of the U.S. taxpayers, the court filing said. That complaint, which repeatedly used the regime\u2019s defamatory language in describing Falun Gong, was \u201cfacially deficient,\u201d stated the filing. It said that IRS personnel have advised to reject the complaint.<\/p>\n<p>On May 14, the pair met with an undercover agent who posed as an IRS official in a restaurant, promising to pay a total of $50,000 to open an audit on the Falun Gong-related entity, the document said. In the backseat of the agent\u2019s vehicle, Chen handed the agent a $1,000 cash bribe, in $100 bills, as an initial payment. The agent would receive 60 percent of the whistleblower award from the IRS if the whistleblower complaint was successful, Chen and Feng promised during the meeting around New York\u2019s Newburgh.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5262831\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2023\/05\/27\/id5262831-Falun-Gong-1200x800.jpg\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2023\/05\/27\/id5262831-Falun-Gong-1200x800.jpg\" alt=\"Falun Gong practitioners march in Manhattan to celebrate World Falun Dafa Day on May 12, 2023, in New York.\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><\/noscript> Falun Gong practitioners march in Manhattan to celebrate World Falun Dafa Day on May 12, 2023, in New York. (Larry Dye\/The Epoch Times)<\/figcaption><\/a><br \/>\n\t<\/figure>\n<p>On an intercepted call two days prior, the two mentioned how they would receive \u201cdirection\u201d from a Chinese official to carry out the scheme through a China-based encrypted messaging app, delete the official\u2019s instructions, and \u201calert\u201d and \u201csound the alarm\u201d to the Chinese official if the meeting failed to go as planned.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is very risky to bring money into the United States,\u201d Chen said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>bribe a public official with thousands of dollars to aid the CCP in &#8220;toppling&#8221; Falun Gong. John Chen, a 70-year-old U.S. citizen, and Lin Feng, a 43-year-old Chinese citizen, were charged by federal prosecutors in New York.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":361,"featured_media":1939486,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[4967,3649,4117,7076,7736,7735,6896,9029],"class_list":["post-1939485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-epoch-times","tag-agents","tag-charged","tag-chinese","tag-doj","tag-falun","tag-gong","tag-targeting","tag-us"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1939485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/361"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1939485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1939485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1939486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1939485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1939485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1939485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}