Ex-New York police sergeant jailed for acting as a Chinese agent
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Michael McMahon was hired as a private investigator to surveil a New Jersey resident who was accused by China of corruption.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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NEW YORK – A former New York City police sergeant was sentenced to 1½ years in prison on April 16 over his 2023 conviction for acting as an illegal Chinese agent.
Michael McMahon was charged over being hired as a private investigator
A federal jury in Brooklyn found McMahon guilty of interstate stalking and of acting as an agent of China without notifying the US attorney-general.
The jury found him not guilty of conspiracy to act as a foreign agent.
McMahon had pleaded not guilty to all charges.
“McMahon, a former law enforcement officer who swore an oath to protect the public, went rogue and dishonourably engaged in a scheme at the direction of the People’s Republic of China,” Mr John Durham, the top federal prosecutor in Brooklyn, said in a statement.
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.
McMahon was convicted amid a broader push by former US Democratic president Joe Biden’s administration to crack down on what it termed transnational repression, or the intimidation and harassment by authoritarian US adversaries
US Republican President Donald Trump’s administration, however, has signalled it will scale down criminal enforcement of US foreign influence laws. During her first day on the job in February, US 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.
In handing down the sentence, US District Judge Pamela Chen said changes in prosecutorial priorities had no impact on her decision.
“The law is the law,” the judge said.
McMahon had secured the support of two Republican US Representatives, Mr Michael Lawler of New York and Mr Pete Sessions of Texas. In 2024, the two congressmen wrote Judge Chen a letter urging her to spare McMahon prison time, citing his service as a police officer and dedication to his family.
Two of McMahon’s co-defendants, Yong Zhu and Congying Zheng, were sentenced to two years, and 1⅓ years in prison, respectively. REUTERS
