finance
Lu Jianwang Goes on Trial in Brooklyn on Charges of Acting as Unregistered Chinese Agent
The 64-year-old U.S. citizen, also known as Harry Lu, faces charges of conspiring to act as a foreign agent and destroying evidence. Prosecutors say he helped establish a Manhattan outpost linked to China's Ministry of Public Security. His defense portrays the case as a failure to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
May 6, 7:34 PM·2m read1 source
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Lu Jianwang went on trial Wednesday in Brooklyn federal court on charges of conspiring to act as a foreign agent and destroying evidence including WeChat messages. U.S. citizen for decades, who also goes by Harry Lu, was arrested at his Bronx home in April 2023, more than three years before the proceedings began.
U.S. authorities had raided the alleged New York City outpost on Oct. 3, 2022. Lu Jianwang and Chen Jinping established the Chinatown outpost in 2022 after Lu attended a ceremony in his native Fujian province where China’s Ministry of Public Security announced it was opening 30 such secret police stations around the world, prosecutor Lindsey Oken said in her opening statement.
The plain, glass-clad building stands six stories between a hotel, a spa and a coffee shop in the heart of Manhattan’s Chinatown neighborhood. ” The Manhattan outpost shared offices with the America ChangLe Association, which Lu Jianwang and his brother Jimmy helped run. ” ChangLe means “eternal joy,” a defense lawyer said.
Fortune reported that the organization was open about offering a service to remotely renew Chinese driver’s licenses amid COVID-19 pandemic-era travel restrictions. “Lu was living in New York City but he was working for the Chinese government,” Lindsey Oken said in an opening statement.
” Oken said Lu worked for China without registering with the Justice Department under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
Lu Jianwang kept in touch with his handler via WeChat and deleted those messages, according to prosecutors. The next day after the raid, he admitted to FBI agents that he established the Manhattan outpost and had deleted the messages. Neither of Lu’s two-hour FBI interviews were recorded, his lawyer noted.
