A Chinese's American's Greed and Betrayal Ends in a Federal Prosecution
By Romen Basu Borsellino | 16 Dec, 2025

Former New York political staffer Linda Su may not seem like your typical spy, but the evidence against her is compellingly shameful.

Linda Sun devoted her life to government service. It’s just not clear which government. 

Sun, once a Deputy Diversity Officer under New York Governor Cuomo and later Deputy Chief of Staff under his successor Kathy Hochul, stands accused of acting as an undisclosed foreign agent for the government of the People’s Republic of China. 

Assistant District Attorney Alexander Solomon is prosecuting the case.

Both Sun and her husband Chris Hu have pled not guilty.

Some of Sun’s alleged China-friendly actions included single-handedly sabotaging a meeting between Governor Cuomo and the President of Taiwan, secretly adding a Chinese official to a government conference call, and helping certain Chinese companies score lucrative contracts for the purchase of personal protecting equipment (PPE) during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In exchange, the prosecution argued, Sun was rewarded handsomely with millions of dollars that she used to buy sports cars and houses with. In other cases, her kickbacks were more creative: 

After telling the head of the Chinese consulate that she wanted salted duck, she began receiving shipments of the delicacy from the diplomat’s personal chef.

The jury began actively deliberating a verdict late last week.

Prior to the allegations, Su worked for then-assemblymember Grace Meng

Who is Linda Sun?

Sun, who is in her early 40s, has lived nearly her entire life in the US.   She and her family came here from Eastern China when she was just five years old and became a naturalized citizen.   She studied at Barnard College in New York before getting a Master’s degree from Columbia University. 

Sun’s career was quickly defined by her engagement with the AAPI community. 

In 2009 she began a string of positions in the New York State Legislature before taking on the role of Chief of Staff for Assemblymember Grace Meng. 

Grace Meng succeeded her father Jimmy Meng, the first Asian American elected to the New York State Assembly, before she ran for Congress in 2012 and became the first Asian American elected from the state of New York.

It is reasonable to assume that Sun may have developed relationships in that role that would be appealing to the Chinese government.

Even though Sun’s arrest was long after she had worked for Meng, the Congresswoman responded by speaking out about China’s meddling in the US government, rather than mentioning her former employee by name.

Sun  would eventually join Governor Cuomo’s administration, starting as his director of Asian Affairs.  When Cuomo resigned from office in 2021, she took a position in the administration of his successor, Governor Kathy Hochul.

Sun’s roles with both Cuomo and Hochul would make her one of the highest ranking Asian American officials in New York state government.

In 2024 Sun was arrested and charged with eight federal criminal counts including conspiring to act as a foreign agent, money laundering, and visa fraud.

Who is Alexander Solomon?

“Linda Sun betrayed the state of New York to enrich herself,” declared Assistant US Attorney for the Eastern District Alexander Solomon as he addressed jurors at the start of the trial.  “She did the bidding of the Chinese government so that she and her husband, Chris Hu, could get rich.”

I wanted to know more about Alexander Solomon, the lead prosecutor, but his name must be a common one, I quickly reasoned.

After all a number of the search engine results I got were not about a prosecutor but rather a classically trained pianist who has traveled the world with a touring orchestra. 

This Alexander Solomon attended the Yale School of Music before studying under Leon Fleischer, one of the world’s most renowned pianists and pedagogists, at Johns Hopkins University’s Peabody Conservatory.

And then I got to the last two lines of his bio:

“Mr. Solomon also graduated with distinction from Stanford Law School, where he was managing editor of the Law Review.

Mr. Solomon is currently a prosecutor with the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.”

This is a renaissance man.

There is no available information about Solomon’s cultural identity, and we know better than to assume something based on one’s appearance, tempting as it may be.  But mastering a classical instrument is certainly something that Asian Americans can relate to.  Solomon’s wife Stacey Koo, a Korean-American, is a renowned violinist.

In his years as a federal prosecutor Solomon has tried cases involving organized crime, terrorism, insurance fraud, and corruption. 

But this may well be his most public case to date.

The Evidence

The prosecutors pointed to a sticker on the back of Sun’s phone case that they supposedly described her mindset.  It read “Get rich, good luck.” 

But more damning was the evidence found inside the phone.  Text messages, emails, and WeChat — a Chinese messaging app — have been used to detail Sun’s private communications with Chinese government officials. 

These messages allegedly contain evidence of Sun:

- Coordinating the COVID-19 PPE contracts

- Getting approval on China-friendly language to be used in statements made by the NY Governor’s office

- Abusing her position to improperly obtain visas for foreign individuals

Prosecutors also pointed to extensive evidence of an alleged money laundering scheme in which Sun’s husband Hu filtered money received from the Chinese government through various shell companies .

They also allege that she forged Governor Kathy Hochul’s signature.

The Defense

“It’s not illegal to have money. It’s not illegal to spend it,” insisted defense attorney Kenneth Abell of the funds that were allegedly laundered through Hu’s business.

And yes, Sun made some mistakes, Abell conceded in his closing arguments, but “she did not commit a crime.”

Ultimately Sun’s team made the case that any actions she took, and advice she gave to the Governor, were in line with her job duties as a liaison between New York’s Asian American community and the state government. 

The prosecution, they alleged, had failed to prove their allegations beyond a reasonable doubt, and had presented instead “a hodgepodge of accusations” akin to “a movie plot” that “doesn’t hold together.”

In some ways, this story is very much the opposite of one that Hollywood might spit out. 

A woman like Linda Sun who grew up in the US, went to historically prominent schools in New York, and then chose to pursue a career in campaigns and government is not exactly the Boris and Natasha-like depiction of a spy that we’re come to expect from the film industry.

And that makes this case all the more intriguing.  

If Sun is in fact guilty, one can’t help but wonder when this began and whether she was drawn solely to the money, or the salted duck or something greater, like an allegiance to a government other than her own. 

Perhaps the answer is complicated.  Humans are complex, after all. Just ask the classical pianist-turned-prosecutor.