A California man sentenced in the US for allegedly acting as a spy for the Chinese Government

MADRID 20 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The United States Department of Justice reported this Tuesday that a California man has been sentenced to 20 months in prison for allegedly acting as a spy for the Chinese Government and for bribing an agent of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). in English) in relation to a plot to attack followers of the Falun Gong religious movement, banned in China.

According to court documents, Jon Chen, 71, and co-defendant Ling Feng, 44, worked from the United States at the direction of Chinese authorities to promote the government’s campaign to “suppress and harass” Falun practitioners. Gong. The two paid $5,000 (around 4,700 euros) in cash in bribes to an alleged IRS worker, who was an undercover agent, in exchange for helping to advance a complaint to strip the entity of its tax-exempt status.

Chen, in a recorded call, explicitly stated that the purpose of paying those bribes, which were funded by Beijing, was to carry out the government’s goal of “overthrowing Falun Gong.” Chen and Feng talked about receiving “instructions” from a Chinese executive official, deleting them, and alerting him in case the bribes did not go as planned.

In addition to the prison sentence, Chen has been sentenced to three years of probation and to pay $50,000 (about 47,000 euros). In late September, Feng was sentenced to 16 months in prison, which he has already served.