An ex-top state aide who lived a lifetime of luxurious allegedly fueled by tens of millions of {dollars} in kickbacks from China is headed to trial — and the case might expose a brazen Beijing affect marketing campaign within the highest reaches of Albany.
In trade for advancing China’s agenda within the Empire State, Linda Solar and her husband, Chris Hu, have been showered with payoffs — which they used to splurge on a gaudy $4 million Lengthy Island mansion, a $2 million second dwelling in Hawaii and flashy vehicles like a Ferrari Roma, prosecutors allege.
A jury in Brooklyn federal court docket is ready to listen to opening statements within the bombshell case Wednesday morning.
Solar, 42, is accused of utilizing her authorities perch to sway Govs. Kathy Hochul and Andrew Cuomo to profit Chinese language pursuits.
This as her Beijing backers steered tens of millions to Hu’s Chinese language enterprise ventures and doled out fancy perks like ballet tickets and salted geese ready by a non-public chef, in response to prosecutors.
Solar rapidly rose the Albany ranks after coming to the state capitol in 2009 as a detailed ally and chief of employees to then-Assemblywoman Grace Meng, now a Democrat congresswoman repping Queens.
She served as director of Asian-American affairs beneath Cuomo, who resigned in shame in 2021 after a state probe detailed allegations that he sexually harassed 11 ladies.
Prosecutors are prone to current proof at trial about how Solar bragged to Chinese language consulate officers that she had stopped Cuomo from publicly thanking Taiwan, which governs itself however whose independence Beijing refuses to acknowledge, in response to court docket paperwork.
It got here after Taiwan despatched 200,000 much-needed masks to New York throughout the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, paperwork state.
However when Beijing chipped in 1 million surgical masks for New York important staff, Solar efficiently lobbied Cuomo to thank Chinese language Consul Normal Huang Ping on social media, court docket papers element.
The alleged Chinese language agent allegedly claimed credit score for blocking conferences between Taiwanese officers and each Cuomo and Hochul, and for convincing Cuomo to omit Taiwan from a press assertion.
“I virtually had a coronary heart assault once we referred to Taiwan as a rustic,” Solar allegedly texted a consulate official in October 2020. “Fortunately I had the press staff right it instantly.”
Solar additionally allegedly secretly allowed one among her Chinese language handlers to eavesdrop on a non-public authorities convention name in March 2020, the place officers mentioned how to answer the pandemic.
Beneath Cuomo’s successor Hochul, Solar was promoted to deputy chief of employees within the govt chamber.
She was in the end fired in March 2023 after the administration uncovered misconduct that it reported to regulation enforcement, in response to the governor’s workplace.
The Chinese language authorities rewarded Solar and Hu with tens of millions of {dollars} despatched to Hu’s China-based companies, plus perks like tickets to see the Guangzhou Ballet at Lincoln Middle and chef-prepared “Nanjing-style” salted geese delivered to Solar’s mother and father’ dwelling, paperwork state.
The illicit funds allowed the pair to afford the Manhasset manse, the ocean-view Honolulu rental and at the least three luxurious vehicles — regardless of Solar’s wage by no means reaching greater than $145,000 and Hu not reporting a lot revenue from his Queens seafood exporting agency, in response to the feds.
Solar and Hu, 42, have pleaded not responsible to prices of violating the International Brokers Registration Act, visa fraud, alien smuggling and cash laundering that carry a potential decades-long jail sentence.
Their legal professionals have argued that the feds have harped on the duo’s lavish way of life with a purpose to distract from purported gaps within the case.
“This indictment is about cash. Within the authorities’s view, Ms. Solar and her household merely have an excessive amount of and so there should be a nefarious motive,” Solar’s legal professional Jarrod Schaeffer wrote to the court docket final November.
“Sputtering about state ethics guidelines and undisclosed items,” Schaeffer continued, “the federal government finally reached the conclusion that when a lady of Chinese language heritage allegedly receives unreported items from different Chinese language people, she should be purchased and paid for by China.”
