A news release from the Department of Justice on Thursday (see also the indictment itself):
JOHN CHEN and LIN FENG pleaded guilty to serving as unregistered agents of the government of the People’s Republic of China (“PRC”) and bribing United States Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) agents in a conspiracy to target practitioners in the United States. Forbidden spiritual practices….
According to the indictment and other court documents:
From at least approximately January 2023 to May 2023, Chen and Feng were in the United States at the direction of the government of the People’s Republic of China, including an identified official of the government of the People’s Republic of China (“PRC Official-1”) work to further promote the government of the People’s Republic of China’s suppression and harassment of Falun Gong practitioners. The Chinese government has classified Falun Gong as one of the “Five Poisons,” or the five threats that pose the greatest threat to its rule. In China, Falun Gong followers face a range of repressive and punitive measures from the Chinese government, including imprisonment.
As part of the Chinese government’s campaign against Falun Gong, Chen and Feng participated in a Chinese government-directed scheme to manipulate the IRS whistleblower program in order to strip tax-exempt status of entities operated and maintained by Falun Gong practitioners (“Entity-1”). After CHEN filed a flawed whistleblower complaint with the IRS (the “Chen Whistleblower Complaint”), CHEN and FENG paid a purported IRS agent (actually an undercover officer) a $5,000 cash bribe and promised to pay more amount. Neither Chen nor Feng notified the Attorney General that they were agents of the government of the People’s Republic of China in the United States.
During the course of the scheme, Chen made it clear in recorded phone calls that the purpose of these bribes, directed and funded by the Government of the People’s Republic of China, was to achieve the Government of the People’s Republic of China’s goal of “overthrowing the people.”[ing] …Falun Gong.reconnaissance, and “alert[ing]” and “ sound[ing] If the meeting between Chen and Feng to bribe Agent 1 does not go as planned, an alert is issued to Official 1 of the People’s Republic of China. gong.
As part of this program, CHEN and FENG met with Agent-1 on May 14, 2023, in Newburgh, New York. CHEN also offered to pay Agent-1 a total of $50,000 to conduct an audit of Entity-1 and 60% of the IRS whistleblower award if Chen’s whistleblower complaint is successful. On May 18, 2023, FENG paid Agent 1 a $4,000 cash bribe at John F. Kennedy International Airport as an additional partial bribe in furtherance of the scheme….
