NEW YORK CITY, NY - On Wednesday, April 16th, a former New York City Police Department (NYPD) sergeant was sentenced to one and a half years in prison over his 2023 conviction for acting as an agent for China.
According to the New York Post, ex-NYPD sergeant Michael McMahon was charged with being hired as a private investigator to surveil a New Jersey resident who was accused by China of corruption, as part of a global campaign by Chinese law enforcement to repatriate alleged criminals living abroad, known as "Operation Fox Hunt."
In 2023, a federal jury in Brooklyn found McMahon guilty of interstate stalking and of acting as an agent of China without notifying the U.S. attorney general. The jury found him not guilty of conspiracy to act as a foreign agent. McMahon pleaded not guilty to all charges.
McMahon was convicted amid a broader push by then-President Joe Biden's administration to crack down on what it termed transnational repression, or the intimidation and harassment by authoritarian U.S. adversaries such as China or Iran of dissidents on U.S. soil. The new administration, led by President Donald Trump, has signaled it will scale down criminal enforcement of U.S. foreign influence laws.
During her first day on the job back in February, Attorney General Pam Bondi said prosecutors would bring criminal cases only when conduct resembles "more traditional espionage," focusing on civil enforcement instead of other scenarios.
McMahon secured the support of two Republican U.S. Representatives, Michael Lawler of New York and Pete Sessions of Texas. In 2024, the two congressmen wrote U.S. District Judge Pamela Chen a letter urging her to spare McMahon prison time, citing his service as a police officer and dedication to his family.
According to NBC News, during the hours-long sentencing, McMahon said he was "unwittingly used" by Chinese operatives when he took what he thought was a routine private investigation job in 2016. He said, "I never thought for one minute I was working for China, stalking anyone. Yet now I've lost everything. This is such a nightmare."
Chen said McMahon aided "a campaign of transnational repression" that harmed the targeted man, his family, and the United States. She said, "This type of crime really does threaten our country's national security." She said the retired NYPD officer ignored clear trouble signs when he agreed in 2016 to help find a man named Xu Jin.
Through his lawyer, McMahon acknowledged searching law enforcement and government databases and conducting surveillance to gather information on Xu, but the former officer maintained that he was told the investigation was for a Chinese construction company hoping to recover embezzled money.
McMahon and his lawyer, Lawrence Lustberg, acknowledged that the investigator missed "red flags," but that this clients deceived him, he didn't anticipate the things they did to badger Xu, and he wouldn't have taken the $11,000 job if he had known about China's involvement. Lustberg called McMahon a patriot.
Two of McMahon's co-defendants, Yong Zhu and Congying Zheng, were sentenced to two years, and one and one third years in prison, respectively. Five other people charged in the case remain at large.
According to the New York Post, ex-NYPD sergeant Michael McMahon was charged with being hired as a private investigator to surveil a New Jersey resident who was accused by China of corruption, as part of a global campaign by Chinese law enforcement to repatriate alleged criminals living abroad, known as "Operation Fox Hunt."
In 2023, a federal jury in Brooklyn found McMahon guilty of interstate stalking and of acting as an agent of China without notifying the U.S. attorney general. The jury found him not guilty of conspiracy to act as a foreign agent. McMahon pleaded not guilty to all charges.
McMahon was convicted amid a broader push by then-President Joe Biden's administration to crack down on what it termed transnational repression, or the intimidation and harassment by authoritarian U.S. adversaries such as China or Iran of dissidents on U.S. soil. The new administration, led by President Donald Trump, has signaled it will scale down criminal enforcement of U.S. foreign influence laws.
During her first day on the job back in February, Attorney General Pam Bondi said prosecutors would bring criminal cases only when conduct resembles "more traditional espionage," focusing on civil enforcement instead of other scenarios.
McMahon secured the support of two Republican U.S. Representatives, Michael Lawler of New York and Pete Sessions of Texas. In 2024, the two congressmen wrote U.S. District Judge Pamela Chen a letter urging her to spare McMahon prison time, citing his service as a police officer and dedication to his family.
According to NBC News, during the hours-long sentencing, McMahon said he was "unwittingly used" by Chinese operatives when he took what he thought was a routine private investigation job in 2016. He said, "I never thought for one minute I was working for China, stalking anyone. Yet now I've lost everything. This is such a nightmare."
Chen said McMahon aided "a campaign of transnational repression" that harmed the targeted man, his family, and the United States. She said, "This type of crime really does threaten our country's national security." She said the retired NYPD officer ignored clear trouble signs when he agreed in 2016 to help find a man named Xu Jin.
Through his lawyer, McMahon acknowledged searching law enforcement and government databases and conducting surveillance to gather information on Xu, but the former officer maintained that he was told the investigation was for a Chinese construction company hoping to recover embezzled money.
McMahon and his lawyer, Lawrence Lustberg, acknowledged that the investigator missed "red flags," but that this clients deceived him, he didn't anticipate the things they did to badger Xu, and he wouldn't have taken the $11,000 job if he had known about China's involvement. Lustberg called McMahon a patriot.
Two of McMahon's co-defendants, Yong Zhu and Congying Zheng, were sentenced to two years, and one and one third years in prison, respectively. Five other people charged in the case remain at large.
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