A former high governor’s aide who allegedly helped her hubby’s seafood enterprise make hundreds of thousands of {dollars} by buying and selling favors to the Chinese language authorities openly toted round a crimson telephone case that mentioned, “Get wealthy, good luck,” the feds say.
“Linda Solar was all concerning the cash,” prosecutor Alexander Solomon mentioned in Brooklyn federal court docket Tuesday, displaying jurors a photograph of the 42-year-old accused lady’s cartoon-animal-decorated telephone case, which was seized by the FBI in a 2024 raid on her Lengthy Island mansion.
Solar is charged with cashing in on her high-ranking positions for each Gov. Kathy Hochul and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo by advancing China’s pursuits as an unregistered agent of Beijing — and scooping up a luxurious Hawaiian second house and white Ferrari within the course of.
She repeatedly bragged to New York’s Chinese language Consulate about taking actions favorable to China throughout her decade-plus stint within the state Capitol, proof from her month-long-trial has revealed.
She as soon as blocked the president of Taiwan, which China doesn’t acknowledge as an impartial nation, from assembly with Cuomo in 2019, the court docket heard.
She took credit score for eradicating mentions of the Uyghurs — a predominantly Muslim ethnic group that Chinese language authorities have jailed en masse — from gubernatorial statements, too.
Proof additionally revealed that Solar secretly added Chinese language consulate official Lihua “Helen” Li onto an authorities convention name concerning the COVID-19 pandemic response.
As well as, Solar advised Li in 2021 that Hochul — Cuomo’s lieutenant governor on the time — was “far more obedient” that Cuomo after convincing Hochul to movie a cringe-worthy Lunar New Yr video that name-dropped Li’s boss, Huang Ping.
In trade for the favors for Chinese language officers, her husband Chris Hu acquired hundreds of thousands of {dollars} from the Chinese language authorities that turned his fledgling Queens seafood export enterprise right into a money cow, permitting the couple to afford a $3.6 million Manhasset manse, a $2 million Hawaii second house and luxurious automobiles similar to a 2024 Ferrari Roma, prosecutors say.
Solar additionally acquired perks similar to free ballet tickets and delectable salted duck ready by the private chef of Ping, the previous head of the New York Chinese language Consulate, within the hard-to-find fashion of Nanjing, Solar’s household’s hometown, proof revealed.
“I need to eat salted duck,” Solar texted Ping throughout a chummy July 28, 2021, trade during which she additionally joked that she ought to get a “China-US Friendship Award.”
“I eat it as a midnight snack,” Solar added — punctuating the trade with a licking-lips emoji to convey how a lot she loved the poultry delicacy.
Solar and Hu are individually charged with taking hundreds of thousands of {dollars} of kickbacks and bribes in trade for steering private protecting tools, or PPE, contracts to an organization owned by her cousin within the early phases of the pandemic, and with visa fraud for allegedly forging Hochul’s signature on invitation letters despatched to Chinese language dignitaries which allowed them to enter the nation.
“You noticed, again and again, a transparent sample of corruption,” Solomon advised jurors Tuesday throughout closing arguments.
“Linda Solar betrayed the State of New York to counterpoint herself,” the prosecutor mentioned, as Solar sat calmly on the protection desk in a grey turtleneck sweater, jotting down notes.
Solar rose the ranks in her time in Albany to finally function a deputy chief of workers within the govt chamber below Hochul. She was ousted from the state authorities in 2023, whereas serving in its Labor Division, after an inside probe uncovered that she’d issued phony state “proclamations” to her father and uncle with out permission.
“Is there one thing incorrect with that?” the squirrely former state official — who based on a witness within the room was “sweaty and nervous” — might be heard saying in a taped interview from the investigation that was performed for the jury.
Solar and Hu have pleaded not responsible, and their attorneys are set to make their very own closing statements to the jury on Wednesday.
