ranging from thursday Press release by the Ministry of Justice (see additionally indictment itself):
JOHN CHEN and LIN FENG pleaded responsible to serving as unregistered brokers of the federal government of the Folks’s Republic of China (“PRC”) and bribing United States Inside Income Service (“IRS”) brokers in a conspiracy to focus on practitioners in the US. Forbidden non secular practices….
In accordance with the indictment and different court docket paperwork:
From no less than roughly January 2023 to Could 2023, Chen and Feng have been in the US on the route of the federal government of the Folks’s Republic of China, together with an recognized official of the federal government of the Folks’s Republic of China (“PRC Official-1”) work to additional promote the federal government of the Folks’s Republic of China’s suppression and harassment of Falun Gong practitioners. The Chinese language authorities has categorized Falun Gong as one of many “5 Poisons,” or the 5 threats that pose the best risk to its rule. In China, Falun Gong followers face a spread of repressive and punitive measures from the Chinese language authorities, together with imprisonment.
As a part of the Chinese language authorities’s marketing campaign in opposition to Falun Gong, Chen and Feng participated in a Chinese language government-directed scheme to govern the IRS whistleblower program in an effort to strip tax-exempt standing of entities operated and maintained by Falun Gong practitioners (“Entity-1”). After CHEN filed a flawed whistleblower grievance with the IRS (the “Chen Whistleblower Criticism”), CHEN and FENG paid a purported IRS agent (really an undercover officer) a $5,000 money bribe and promised to pay extra quantity. Neither Chen nor Feng notified the Lawyer Basic that they have been brokers of the federal government of the Folks’s Republic of China in the US.
In the course of the course of the scheme, Chen made it clear in recorded telephone calls that the aim of those bribes, directed and funded by the Authorities of the Folks’s Republic of China, was to realize the Authorities of the Folks’s Republic of China’s purpose of “overthrowing the folks.”[ing] …Falun Gong.reconnaissance, and “alert[ing]” and “ sound[ing] If the assembly between Chen and Feng to bribe Agent 1 doesn’t go as deliberate, an alert is issued to Official 1 of the Folks’s Republic of China. gong.
As a part of this program, CHEN and FENG met with Agent-1 on Could 14, 2023, in Newburgh, New York. CHEN additionally provided to pay Agent-1 a complete of $50,000 to conduct an audit of Entity-1 and 60% of the IRS whistleblower award if Chen’s whistleblower grievance is profitable. On Could 18, 2023, FENG paid Agent 1 a $4,000 money bribe at John F. Kennedy Worldwide Airport as an extra partial bribe in furtherance of the scheme….
