미등록中 공산당 지령 받고 美서 활동한 요원 2명 체포…치밀했던 FBI 작전은 [팩트매터]

The FBI has successfully smoked out two agents of the Chinese Communist Party who were acting on American soil, attempting to bribe and manipulate the IRS into doing China's bidding. After they were caught trying to bribe a U.S. official, the two men, they were arrested and they wound up pleading guilty. And just three weeks ago, they were sentenced, one of them to 16 months and the other to 20 months behind bars. And the story of who these men were, how they got recruited, the plan that they were enacting, the specific policy of China's that they were pushing forward here in America, as well as how the FBI was ultimately able to sniff them out and capture them, is all fascinating to say the least. And it gives us a bit of a glimpse into what the FBI can do when defending this country against foreign agents, as well as the kind of lengths that the Chinese communists will go to to silence dissent of any kind. And so let's go through the entirety of the story together. To start with, on May 26th of 2023, the Department of Justice released an official statement saying that they have arrested and filed charges against two men. You had Mr. John Chen, a 70-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen who was originally from China, as well as Mr. Lin Feng, a 43-year-old Chinese citizen. And according to the indictment paperwork that you can see up on your screen, these two men were charged in connection to a bribery scheme that they were enacting right here on U.S. soil at the behest of the Chinese Communist Party. And their crimes included the following, acting as an agent of a foreign government without notifying the attorney general, bribing a public official, as well as conspiracy to commit international money laundering. Essentially, these two men were acting as Chinese communist agents here on U.S. soil in order to advance the CCP's persecution campaign against Falun Gong practitioners. Now, we have covered the persecution of Falun Gong in greater depth in a previous episode, and I'll throw a link to that episode down in the description box below if you want to watch it again. But the gist of it is that starting in the year 1999, the CCP, under then-President Jiang Zemin, they launched a brutal crackdown on the nearly 100 million people who were practicing this particular meditation discipline over in mainland China. Essentially, overnight, the CCP made Falun Gong practitioners enemies of the state. And since then, within China at least, practitioners have been rounded up, they have been jailed, they've been put into forced labor camps, brainwashing facilities, the women have been sexually abused, and there's even substantial and voluminous amounts of evidence showing that the CCP has built out a giant industrial-scale organ harvesting operation in order to profit off of the physical bodies of the practitioners that they have in prison. In fact, as an aside, there was just a great movie released about this particular topic called State Organs. And actually, I was honored to host the panel Q&A with the director of that film when it premiered in New York City just last month. Regardless, though, after the persecution began, the Falun Gong practitioners who left China, they started various companies overseas to help clarify the truth, expose the persecution, as well as to expose the Chinese Communist Party more broadly. And among these projects was a dance company called Shen Yun. You've probably seen their ads. They're literally everywhere. Their dances, they present China as it was prior to communism. And in each one of their performances, they have multiple numbers which directly expose the CCP for its many crimes against humanity. Meaning, as a practical matter, that Shen Yun travels around the whole world, going to the nicest venues in every major city, and they expose the CCP's crimes before a global audience, typically consisting of people who are in the elite levels of society. And apparently, the CCP doesn't like that, which is exactly why they enacted this whole bribery scheme to try and get Shen Yun's non-profit status revoked here in America. Now, the indictment that was actually filed by the Department of Justice, it laid out this whole scheme, as well as how the FBI was able to catch them fairly well and logically. And so let's go through it together. And just so you can easily keep track of everyone on this particular timeline, let me briefly introduce you the five characters who are involved. You have John Chen and Lin Feng, the two guys who are acting as agents for the CCP. You have someone that the FBI refers to as Individual One. And just to make it easier to read, we're going to call this guy Frank. The communist agents thought that Frank was their friend, but unbeknownst to them, Frank was actually an undercover FBI informant the entire time. Then you also have a Chinese government official who was the handler for these two CCP agents. And then lastly, you have an IRS agent. He's the one who's actually getting bribed. But unbeknownst to the communists, this IRS agent was actually not an IRS agent at all. He was actually an undercover FBI agent the whole time. And so those are the five major players involved. And here is how the indictment breaks down what actually took place. Quote, on or about January 21st, 2023, during a recorded call with a particular individual, Individual One, John Chen discussed planning to bribe an IRS official to investigate the Falun Gong with the ultimate goal of achieving the Chinese communist government's aim to quote unquote topple the Falun Gong and stated that leadership, referring to Chinese government officials, would be very generous in funding the illicit payments. And so everything begins with John Chen having a phone call with Frank, the undercover FBI informant. John tells Frank that he wants to take down Shen Yun by using the IRS. And so Frank, he helps to put John in touch with someone that he claims is an IRS agent. Then about two weeks later, quote, in or about early February 2023, John Chen sent the fake whistleblower complaint to the IRS. And so essentially what happened was that after getting introduced to this IRS agent, John Chen submitted a fake whistleblower document with the intention being to strip Shen Yun of its nonprofit status. Then about a month and a half later, the DOJ references a recorded phone call. Although in this indictment, they don't exactly make clear whether it was recorded by the participants of the phone call or if it was intercepted through a wiretap. Regardless, though, it was recorded. And here's what they wrote was said, quote, on or about March 20th of 2023, during a recorded call, a Chinese communist government official who is the one managing and directing these two patsies in the bribery scheme. He discussed the fake whistleblower IRS complaint with individual one and conveyed that he wanted John Chen to meet with the IRS agent regarding the fake whistleblower complaint. Now, it's worth mentioning, again, that the person here being labeled as individual one, the guy we refer to as Frank, was actually an FBI informant the whole time. In fact, there is a footnote in this indictment. You can see it up on your screen, which unequivocally states that individual one was being paid by the FBI during the entire period of time that this indictment covers. Essentially, these communists never really stood a chance. Regardless, though, getting back to the actual timeline, the indictment says this, quote, Approximately five days later, on or about March 25th of 2023, John Chen contacted the IRS agent by email and subsequently set up a meeting with the IRS agent for May 15th of 2023. And so John Chen, who is in March physically in China, sends an email to this IRS agent in order to set up a meeting for the following May for May 15th. Then, quote, on or about May 8th, 2023, which is a week before the scheduled meeting. John Chen entered the United States from China carrying approximately ten thousand four hundred dollars in cash and was picked up at the airport by Lin Feng, his accomplice. OK, so now at this point, both of these two Chinese communist agents are physically present right here in the US. The story continues, quote, on or about May 12th, 2023, on a call intercepted pursuant to a judicially authorized Title three wiretap. John Chen and Lin Feng discussed that while John was in the United States, they would receive direction from their Chinese communist government handler on carrying out the bribery scheme through a China based encrypted messaging app that they would delete instructions received from the Chinese official and that they would alert and sound the alarm to that official if the planned meeting with the IRS agent did not go as anticipated. Now, I just want to pause here for a moment and mention that at this point, reading the indictment, it almost seems like these two guys, they saw themselves as some kind of like Chinese James Bond types communicating with their own M back at CCP headquarters. The only problem, though, is that this whole thing was being completely watched over by the U.S. government. The indictment continues, quote, on or about May 14th of 2023, John Chen and Lin Feng met with the IRS agent in or around Newburgh, New York, during which meeting John gave a one thousand dollar cash bribe to the IRS agent as an initial partial payment. Also, John Chen, in order to further the bribery scheme, promised to pay the IRS agent a total of fifty thousand dollars in exchange for the agent to open an audit on Shen Yun. Also, John Chen promised to give the agent 60 percent of any whistleblower award from the IRS if the fake whistleblower complaint was successful. And so in short, not only were they offering to pay this IRS agent a fat lump sum of money to open up this investigation, but also they were promising him a perpetual kickback. Normally, when you have a real IRS whistleblower complaint, if that complaint actually leads to more money being recovered by the IRS, the person who submitted the original complaint can get a percentage of that recovered money. And so in this case, the CCP agents were trying to use that award money as leverage to buy this IRS agent's services. And by the way, just as an aside, the reason that this particular story really does matter is because these are the guys that actually got caught. But it remains a real question of how many of these types of schemes don't get caught and actually wind up proving successful, which actually the indictment alludes to right here in this part. Quote, on or about May 16th of 2023, during an intercepted call between John Chen and Lin Feng, Chen stated in the course of discussing the bribery scheme targeting the Falun Gong that their Chinese communist government handler is the, quote, one that is always in charge of these matters, which is very interesting because when he mentions these matters, well, it's a subtle implication that this type of scheme has been enacted before. It's not the first time. And in terms of their rationale, meaning why these two patsies, as well as the government official over in China, would risk so much and just generally use up so much time and resources on this type of a scheme just to target a dance company, well, it appears that the answer was not simply financial. It's actually a deep ideological hatred. Here's what the indictment states, quote, also on or about May 16th, 2023, during a recorded call with the IRS agent, John Chen reiterated that he was carrying out the bribery scheme with Lin Feng on behalf of the Chinese communist government and stated that his associates in the Chinese government are like blood brothers. We started this fight against the founder of the Falun Gong 20, 30 years ago. They are always with us. That is, if nothing else, amazing. It is a real uncensored look into the true heart of the Chinese Communist Party. It's not simply a matter of politics or money or something else like that. It is a true ideological struggle wherein the CCP agents and the government officials who are directing them, they see themselves as blood brothers trying to take down a spiritual group that doesn't align with communism. Regardless, though, getting back to the actual bribery component, the indictment goes on to list more money that was transferred over to this IRS agent. Quote, on or about May 18th, 2023, Lin Feng paid the IRS agent a four thousand dollar cash bribe at JFK International Airport as an additional partial payment in furtherance of the bribery scheme. Also, on the same day, during a recorded call, John Chen told the IRS agent that he would return to China and gather more funding for the bribery scheme and that Lin Feng would thereafter hand deliver two twenty five thousand dollar payments to the IRS agent in New York to execute the bribery scheme. And so, in short, by the end of May 2023, these two agents of the Chinese Communist Party, they had successfully given this IRS agent two bribes totaling five thousand dollars and have promised him an additional fifty thousand dollars to open up their requested investigation, the so-called whistleblower complaint. But and here's the kicker. The complaint was not true. If it was true, they could just file it normally. Instead, the whistleblower complaint was based on fake information, something that this indictment actually lays out. Quote, the Chen whistleblower complaint is facially deficient and IRS personnel have advised that the IRS whistleblower program would reject the Chen whistleblower complaint, meaning that in and of itself there was nothing to the complaint, which is why they were trying to bribe an IRS agent to actually act on it. Their main goal was to just by any means necessary, try and remove the 501C3 status of a company that was working to expose the Chinese Communist Party in theaters around the globe. However, that's not what actually happened. Instead, both of these two men were arrested by the FBI and they were charged with felonies related to being agents of a foreign state, while at the same time bribing a U.S. official. Both John Chen and Lin Feng were detained back in May of last year. Both of them wound up pleading guilty and both of them were sentenced to 20 months and 16 months respectively behind bars. But since both men have literally been sitting behind bars ever since they were first arrested, what wound up happening was that Lin Feng was let go because he had already served for 16 months, while John Chen still has four months left in a sentence. I would actually love to know your thoughts, by the way. Was this sentence too light or was it just right? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below. I'll be reading through them later. Regardless, though, there you have the story of how the FBI was able to smoke out two agents of the Chinese Communist Party who are working to further the persecution of a religious group right here on American soil. And this story, in my opinion, is really the tip of the iceberg because these types of schemes and machinations are multifaceted and the Chinese communists are using all sorts of methods to advance their agenda in this respect, not just this one method of this IRS bribery scheme. For instance, back in September, this grandpa looking guy right here who worked as a Verizon engineer down in Florida, he pled guilty to also acting as an agent for the Chinese communist government to also further their persecution against Falun Gong right here in America. Quote, Mr. Lee allegedly worked as a cooperative agent for the Ministry of State Security, China's top intelligence gathering agency. At the request of an officer from the ministry in Wuhan, China, the 59 year old allegedly collected the personal details of Chinese dissidents, pro-democracy activists, U.S. politicians and nonprofits and practitioners and supporters of the spiritual group Falun Gong. Last month, Mr. Lee wound up getting sentenced to four years behind bars. Also, we here at The Epoch Times, we recently published this exclusive report right here detailing a top secret meeting held in Beijing, wherein Xi Jinping ordered that a new strategy be undertaken to attack Falun Gong practitioners globally. Quote, in October 2022, Chinese leader Xi Jinping held a secret meeting instructing top state officials overseeing political intelligence and influence operations on a new strategy to target the Falun Gong spiritual group internationally. The focus of the Chinese regime's latest anti-Falun Gong strategy is launching disinformation campaigns via social media influencers and Western media outlets and using the American legal system to go after companies started by Falun Gong practitioners. Now, just for your general reference, details of this particular secret government meeting were provided to us by a man named Yuan Hongbin. He's a Chinese legal scholar currently living in exile over in Australia, but he maintains deep connections within the CCP's top political circles. Here's what he told us. Quote, the meeting took place right before the 20th National Congress, which saw Xi secure an unprecedented third term as party leader. Xi told officials at the meeting that the regime's previous efforts to suppress Falun Gong overseas had essentially failed. Xi's instructions, which have not been previously reported, appear to have quickly led to an escalation in the long running operation against Falun Gong practitioners abroad, a campaign that has cast a shadow over the lives of those who have sought refuge in the United States and elsewhere. Xi instructed officials to attack Falun Gong with lawfare and disinformation, deploying social media and media with no traceable ties to the CCP. Xi wants to use social media and Western media in his war of public opinion because he believes using CCP state media is not effective overseas since it is seen as propaganda. And indeed, shortly after this 2022 meeting, you had not only this IRS bribery scheme beginning to play itself out, but also you suddenly saw Western media outlets like The New York Times, for instance, running hit pieces against Shen Yun. Now, of course, the reporters at those particular news outlets, they would likely defend their stories by saying that they were just reporting the facts. But the reporting appears to be perfectly in line with this broader CCP strategy to silence any dissenting voices. Shen Yun travels around the whole world, again, going to the nicest venues in practically every city exposing the CCP. And then in turn, the CCP attempts to have them stripped of their IRS nonprofit status. It attempts to have Western media outlets run hit pieces against them. And something that I didn't even mention earlier, those same two CCP agents that we were discussing earlier regarding the IRS bribery scheme, they were also filing fervorless environmental lawsuits in a lawfare effort to target Shen Yun as well. However, like most things that communists everywhere do, none of it appears to be working. And instead, their attempts to silence dissenting voices appears to be backfiring as their agents appear to be getting arrested one after another. Although, of course, the big question is how many agents haven't been arrested yet? We only know about the ones who have been arrested, but the men who were arrested in New York, California and Florida. But how many CCP agents are still acting on U.S. soil? And we just don't know about them. That's the real question. Regardless, though, if you'd like to go deeper into the story, I'll throw the links to all my research notes, including the indictment documents. They'll be down in the description box below. And then until next time, I'm your host, Roman from The Epoch Times. Stay informed. Stay vigilant against CCP spies. And as always, stay free.