NEW YORK (Reuters) -A former New York City police sergeant was convicted on Tuesday by a Brooklyn jury of acting as an illegal Chinese agent by intimidating a U.S.-based fugitive to return to his homeland to face charges.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said Michael McMahon, who became a private investigator after retiring from the police force, was hired to surveil New Jersey resident Xu Jin as part of a global repatriation campaign by Chinese law enforcement called “Operation Fox Hunt.”
The case was the first of several involving alleged Fox Hunt schemes to reach trial in the United States.
U.S. officials have been cracking down on what they call “transnational repression” of dissidents and fugitives, including by China.
The Chinese embassy in Washington has said the defendants are not Chinese law enforcement, and said the charges were slanderous or based on rumor. It has also said repatriating fugitives is a just cause.
McMahon pleaded not guilty and argued he did not know he was working for China.
Jurors also convicted McMahon on a stalking charge, but found him not guilty of conspiring to act as a foreign agent, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Breon Peace in Brooklyn said.
Co-defendant Zhu Yong, who hired McMahon in 2016 for the job, was convicted on all charges.
A third defendant, Zheng Congying, who prosecutors say posted a threatening note on Jin’s door in 2018, was convicted of stalking but found not guilty of acting as a Chinese agent.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Mark Porter and Matthew Lewis)
