Ex-NYPD sergeant gets 18 months for helping China stalk expat
Ex-NYPD sergeant gets 18 months for helping China stalk expat
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A federal judge sentenced an ex-New York police officer to 18 months in prison over his 2023 conviction for acting as an illegal agent for the People's Republic of China, the Justice Department announced.
Federal prosecutors said Michael McMahon, 57, pressured a New Jersey resident to return to China to face bribery and embezzlement charges, an example of a global repatriation campaign by Chinese law enforcement known as "Operation Fox Hunt." A federal jury in Brooklyn found McMahon, of Mahwah, a retired New York City Police Department sergeant, guilty of interstate stalking and of acting as an agent of China without notifying the U.S. attorney general.
As part of his sentence, McMahon was also ordered to pay a $11,000 fine.
"McMahon, a former law enforcement officer who swore an oath to protect the public, went rogue and dishonorably engaged in a scheme at the direction of the People's Republic of China," John Durham, the top federal prosecutor in Brooklyn, said in a statement.
McMahon and his co-defendants, Zhu Yong, 68, and Congying Zheng, 29, were convicted by a federal jury in June 2023 following a three-week trial, the U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of New York, said in a news release.
McMahon said he thought he was working for a company seeking to recover embezzled funds, and would not have taken the job if he knew the Chinese government was behind it. "I was unwittingly used," he said in court.
Justice Department: A whole floor of a NYC building was a secret, 'illegal police station' for China
Prosecutors: Campaign to 'threaten, harass, surveil, and intimidate'
According to federal prosecutors, McMahon, Yong, Zheng, and their co-conspirators participated in an international campaign between 2016 and 2019 "to threaten, harass, surveil, and intimidate" a man and his family to return to China to face purported corruption charges.
Prosecutors added that Zhu hired McMahon, who was working as a private investigator, to locate the man. McMahon, according to prosecutors, "obtained sensitive information" about the individual and reported back to Zhu and others, including a PRC police officer."
McMahon also conducted surveillance outside the New Jersey home of the man's relative and provided detailed reports, prosecutors said in a statement, adding that the operation was supervised and directed by several Chinese officials, including a People's Republic of China police officer and prosecutor.
Prosecutors said McMahon understood that the Chinese government wanted the people of his investigation, a fact he volunteered to share with an investigator he had contracted for help. The Justice Department said McMahon took additional steps to harass the man, like researching his daughter's university residence and college major.
McMahon was paid more than $19,000 for his role in the illegal repatriation scheme, and even deposited payments into his son's bank account, prosecutors added.
In handing down the sentence, U.S. District Judge Pamela Chen said changes in prosecutorial priorities had no impact on her decision. "The law is the law," the judge added.
Zhu was sentenced to 24 months in prison, while Congying was handed a 16-month prison sentence.
Lawmakers urged judge to spare McMahon from prison time
McMahon was convicted amid a broader push by the Biden 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. But the Trump administration has signaled it will scale down criminal enforcement of U.S. foreign influence laws.
During her first day on the job in February, Attorney General Pam Bondi said prosecutors would bring criminal cases only when conduct resembles "more traditional espionage," focusing on civil enforcement instead in other scenarios.
McMahon had also secured the support of two Republican U.S. Representatives, Michael Lawler of New York and Pete Sessions of Texas. Last year, the two congressmen wrote Chen a letter urging her to spare McMahon prison time, citing his service as a police officer and dedication to his family.
Contributing: Reuters
Contact reporter Krystal Nurse at knurse@USATODAY.com. Follow her on X @KrystalRNurse, and on BlueSky @krystalrnuse.bsky.social.
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