NEW YORK (HRWN) – Three men accused of acting as illegal agents of China will face trial on Wednesday in the United States, part of an escalating crackdown on what U.S. prosecutors call Chinese state-backed intimidation of dissidents and fugitives overseas.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn say Michael McMahon, Zheng Congying and Zhu Yong pressured a New Jersey resident to return to China to face bribery and embezzlement charges, one example of what they describe as a global repatriation campaign by Chinese law enforcement known as “Operation Fox Hunt.”
Prosecutors say Zhu and others in 2016 hired McMahon, a private investigator and former New York City police sergeant, to watch and investigate the New Jersey resident, a Chinese citizen who has lived in the United States since 2010 and is referred to in court papers as John Doe.
They said Zheng in 2018 tried to break into John Doe’s home and left a handwritten note on the front door reading in Chinese, “If you are willing to go back to the mainland and spend 10 years in prison, your wife and children will be all right.”
All three men have pleaded not guilty to charges of acting as Chinese agents without notifying the U.S. Attorney General, as required by law.