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Transnational Repression (TNR)

Recent Cases and Related Press Releases

  • In October 2024, a superseding indictment was unsealed charging Ruhollah Bazghandi, Hossein Sedighi, Seyed Forouzan, and an unknown individual with murder-for-hire, money-laundering, and sanctions evasion for their role in contacting an Eastern European criminal organization to murder a U.S. citizen. Members of the European criminal organization, Rafat Amirov, Polad Omarov, and Zialat Mamedov, were previously charged and arrested for participating in the murder-for-hire scheme. According to the allegations, Bazghandi, who resides in Iran, is an Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Brigadier General. The victim is a journalist, author, and human rights activist who has publicized the Government of Iran’s human rights abuses and suppression of political expression. The murder-for-hire plot was disrupted by the FBI.
     
  • In October 2024, a superseding indictment was unsealed charging an Indian government employee, Vikash Yadav, for directing a foiled plot to assassinate a U.S. citizen in New York City. Yadav’s alleged co-conspirator, Nikhil Gupta, was previously charged and extradited to the United States. As alleged, in 2023, Yadav, working together with others in India and elsewhere, including Gupta, directed a plot to assassinate on U.S. soil an attorney and political activist who is a U.S. citizen of Indian origin. The victim is a vocal critic of the Indian government and leads a U.S.-based organization that advocates for the secession of Punjab, a state in northern India that is home to a large population of Sikhs, an ethnoreligious minority group in India.
     
  • In September 2024, Ping Li, a resident of Wesley Chapel, Florida, pleaded guilty to conspiring to act as an illegal agent of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Li admitted that, from at least as early as 2012, he served as a cooperative contact working at the direction of officers of the PRC Ministry of State Security (MSS) to obtain information of interest to the PRC government. Li obtained a wide variety of information at the request of the MSS, including information concerning Chinese dissidents, pro-democracy advocates, and members of the Falun Gong religious movement. In November 2024, Ping Li was sentenced to 48 months' imprisonment and ordered to pay a $250,000 fine as a result of his conduct.
     
  • In August 2024, Yuanjun Tang, a resident of Queens, New York, was arrested for operating as an illegal agent of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and making false statements to federal officials. As alleged, Tang is a former PRC citizen who was imprisoned in the PRC for his activities as a dissident opposing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). He eventually moved to the United States and led a nonprofit group dedicated to promoting democracy in China. Since at least 2018, however, Tang is alleged to have acted in the United States as an agent of the PRC by completing tasks at the direction of the PRC Ministry of State Security (MSS). Specifically, through a shared email account, encrypted chats, text messages, and audio and video calls, Tang regularly received instructions from and reported to the MSS regarding individuals and groups viewed by the PRC as potentially adverse to the PRC’s interests, including U.S.-based Chinese democracy activists and dissidents.
     
  • In August 2024, a federal jury convicted Shujun Wang, a resident of Queens, New York, with acting and conspiring to act as an illegal agent of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), criminal use of identification, and making false statements to law enforcement. Wang is one of the founders of a pro-democracy organization whose members are well-known pro-democracy dissidents who oppose the current PRC government. Instead of promoting democracy in the PRC, however, Wang, at the direction of PRC government officials, used his position and status within the Chinese diaspora community to collect information about prominent activists, academics, and dissidents, and reported that information to the PRC government.  
     
  • In July 2024, John Chen and Lin Feng, both residents of Los Angeles, California, pleaded guilty to acting as illegal agents of the PRC and bribing an IRS agent.  According to court documents, from at least approximately January 2023 to May 2023, Chen and Feng worked inside the United States at the direction of the PRC government to further the PRC's campaign to repress and harass Falun Gong practitioners. As part of the PRC's campaign against the Falun Gong, Chen and Feng engaged in a PRC government-directed scheme to manipulate the IRS’s Whistleblower Program in an effort to strip the tax-exempt status of an entity run and maintained by Falun Gong practitioners. In September 2024, Feng was sentenced to 16 months' imprisonment, and in November 2024, Chen was sentenced to 20 months' imprisonment.
     
  • In May 2024, Quanzhong An, a resident of Roslyn, New York, pleaded guilty to acting as an illegal agent of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). An had been charged along with members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Office of the Provincial Commission for participating in a scheme to cause the forced repatriation of a PRC national residing in the United States.  Specifically, An acted at the Commission’s direction to conduct surveillance of and engage in a campaign to harass and coerce a U.S. resident to return to the PRC as part of an international extralegal repatriation effort known as “Operation Foxhunt.”  
     
  • In January 2024, an indictment was unsealed charging Naj Sharifi Zindashti, a resident of Iran, Damian Patrick Ryan, of Canada, and Adam Richard Pearson, of Canada, for conspiring to murder two residents of the state of Maryland. The defendants, one of whom is based in Iran, used an encrypted messaging service called “SkyECC” to recruit individuals who would travel into the United States to carry out the killings; discuss the identities and locations of the would-be victims; plan logistics and mechanics of how to carry out the murders; and negotiate payment for the killings. The intended victims of this plot, who at the time resided in Maryland, had previously fled to the United States after one of them defected from Iran. Concurrent with the unsealing, the Department of the Treasury sanctioned Zindashti, among others, for operating a criminal network that targets Iranian dissidents and opposition activists for kidnapping and assassination at the direction of the Iranian regime. The FBI also is seeking additional information on Iranian intelligence officer, Reza Hamidi Ravari, who is wanted for questioning in connection with providing material support to the Zindashti criminal network and their associates.
     
  • In June 2023, a jury convicted Michael McMahon, Congying Zheng, and Zhu Yong with various crimes stemming from their participation in the PRC’s global and extralegal repatriation effort known as “Operation Foxhunt.”  As proven at trial, between 2016 and 2019, McMahon, Zheng, and Zhu participated in an international campaign to threaten, harass, surveil, and intimidate a victim and his family in order to coerce the victim to return to the PRC.  Previously, three other defendants had pleaded guilty in connection with their roles in the scheme.  Four other defendants, including a PRC prosecutor and police officer, are fugitives.
     
  • In May 2023, Litang Liang of Brighton, Massachusetts, was indicted and arrested for acting as an illegal agent and conspiring to act as an illegal agent of the PRC.  As alleged, among other conduct, Liang provided PRC government officials with photographs of and information about dissidents and organized a counter-protest against pro-democracy dissidents.
     
  • In April 2023, “Harry” Lu Jianwang and Chen Jinping, both residents of New York City, were arrested and charged with conspiring to act as illegal agents of the PRC as well as obstruction of justice. As alleged, Lu and Chen worked together to establish the first overseas police station in the United States on behalf of the municipal branch of the PRC’s Ministry of Public Security (MPS) in the Chinese city of Fuzhou, Fujian Province. Among other alleged conduct, Lu was enlisted in efforts to cause a purported PRC fugitive to return to the PRC, including through harassment and threats of violence. Lu was also enlisted to locate a pro-democracy activist living in California. In December 2024, Chen pleaded guilty to conspiring to act as an illegal agent of the PRC.
     
  • In April 2023, a criminal complaint was unsealed charging 34 People’s Republic of China (PRC) Ministry of Public Security (MPS) officers with conspiracy to transmit interstate threats and conspiracy to commit interstate harassment. As alleged, among other activity, members of the group created thousands of fake online personas on social media sites to target Chinese dissidents through online harassment and threats. 
     
  • In April 2023, an amended complaint was filed against 10 individuals – including a People’s Republic of China (PRC)-based employee of a telecommunications company, six PRC Ministry of Public Security (MPS) officers, and two Cyberspace Administration of China officers – charging them with conspiracy to commit interstate harassment and unlawful conspiracy to transfer means of identification. The charges stemmed from an alleged scheme by the PRC government to censor the political and religious speech of individuals living in the United States and elsewhere. For example, the defendants conspired to disrupt a series of video conference meetings on the telecommunications company platform held to commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre. 
     
  • In August 2022, a jury convicted Ahmad Abouammo, a former Twitter employee, of acting as an illegal agent of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, wire fraud, money laundering, and other crimes. According to the evidence presented at trial, Abouammo took bribes in exchange for accessing, monitoring, and conveying the private information of Twitter users to Saudi government officials and the Saudi Royal family. In December 2022, Abouammo was sentenced to 42 months’ imprisonment. Two other defendants charged in connection with the same scheme – Ali Alzabarah, another former Twitter employee, and Ahmed Almutairi – are fugitives.
     
  • In July 2022, a superseding indictment charged Fan “Frank” Liu, Matthew Ziburis, Qiang “Jason” Sun, Craig Miller, and Derrick Taylor with various crimes related to a People’s Republic of China (PRC)-directed scheme targeting U.S. residents whose political views and actions are disfavored by the PRC government. According to the charges, Sun was based in the PRC and acted as a proxy for the PRC government. Liu and Ziburis operated under Sun’s direction and control to discredit pro-democracy PRC dissidents residing in the United States. Further, Miller, who was at that time an employee of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and Taylor, a private investigator and former DHS employee, were tasked by one of Liu’s co-conspirators to obtain personal identification information regarding multiple PRC dissidents, including passport, flight, and immigration records. In 2022, Miller pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and Ziburis pleaded guilty to conspiracy to act as an illegal agent of the PRC and conspiracy to engage in interstate stalking and harassment.
     
  • In March 2022, Qiming Lin, of the PRC, was charged with conspiracy to commit interstate harassment and conspiracy and attempt to use a means of identification in connection with an interstate harassment conspiracy. As alleged, Lin worked on behalf of the PRC’s Ministry of State Security to hire a private investigator in New York to disrupt the campaign of a Brooklyn resident running for U.S. Congress, including by physically attacking the victim. The victim had been a student leader of the pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square in 1989 who later emigrated to the United States.
     
  • In March 2022, Sun Hoi Ying, a People’s Republic of China (PRC) national, was charged with acting as an illegal agent of the PRC.  As alleged, Sun conducted operations in the United States on behalf of the PRC government to pressure, threaten, and collect personal information regarding victims of the PRC’s global extralegal repatriation effort known as “Operation Fox Hunt". Among other things, Sun used the services of a private investigator to collect information about and surveillance of Fox Hunt victims.  
     
  • In February 2022, Hector Alejandro Cabrera Fuentes pleaded guilty to acting as an illegal agent of a Russian government official. Fuentes arranged for an intermediary to lease a unit in a specific residential building in Miami-Dade County, Florida, where a specified U.S. person, who had previously provided information about the Russian government to the U.S. government, resided. Fuentes also traveled to Miami to obtain the license plate number and parking location of the specified U.S. persons’ car to provide to the Russian official. In June 2022, Fuentes was sentenced to four years and one day in prison.
     
  • In January 2022, four Belarusian government officials, Leonid Mikalaevich Churo, Oleg Kazyuchits, Andrey Anatolievich (last name unknown), and an unknown individual, were indicted with conspiracy to commit aircraft piracy. As alleged, the four Belarusian officials engineered the diversion of Ryanair Flight 4978 – which was carrying four U.S. nationals and more than 100 other passengers – while it was in flight on May 23, 2021, in order to arrest a dissident Belarusian journalist.
     
  • In July 2021, Alireza Farahani, Mahmoud Khazein, Kiya Sadeghi, and Omid Noori, were indicted for conspiring to kidnap a Brooklyn journalist, author, and human rights activist. The victim had worked to mobilize public opinion in Iran and around the world to bring about changes to the Iranian government regime’s laws and practices. According to the indictment, Farahani is an Iranian intelligence official, and Khazein, Sadeghi, and Noori are Iranian intelligence assets. A fifth individual – a California resident, Niloufar Bahadorifar – was also indicted on structuring, sanctions evasion, and other charges for providing financial services in support of the plot. In December 2022, Bahadorifar pleaded guilty to sanctions evasion and structuring charges, and was sentenced in April 2023 to four years’ imprisonment.
Updated January 10, 2025