A 71-year-old Chinese man was sentenced to 20 months in prison on Tuesday for taking part in a plot targeting the Falun Gong spiritual movement in the United States.
John Chen, of Los Angeles, was convicted of acting as an unregistered agent of the Chinese government and bribing a tax authority agent.
Chen and another Chinese national, Lin Feng, 44, who also lived in Los Angeles, took part in a Chinese government campaign to "repress and harass Falun Gong practitioners" in the United States, the Justice Department said in a statement.
In 2023, Chen and Feng sought to have the Internal Revenue Service strip the tax-exempt status of the Shen Yun Performing Arts Center, which is run by the Falun Gong.
As part of the scheme, they paid a $5,000 cash bribe to a purported IRS agent who was in fact an undercover officer.
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd,
racist or sexually-oriented language. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another
person will not be tolerated. Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone
or anything. Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism
that is degrading to another person. Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on
each comment to let us know of abusive posts. Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness
accounts, the history behind an article.
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.