The Justice Department on Monday unveiled charges against the co-director of a Maryland think tank, alleging he acted as an illegal arms broker and unregistered agent for the Beijing government while also seeking to help China obtain Iranian oil. In violation of US sanctions.
Gal Luft, a dual US-Israeli citizen, is accused of recruiting and paying a former senior US government official – and adviser to then-President-elect Donald Trump – on behalf of China-based directors in 2016 without telling register in the United States. as a foreign agent as required by federal law.
The 57-year-old fugitive has emerged as a key figure in Republican-led corruption probes against President Joe Biden, accusing him, his son Hunter Biden and other family members of having improper financial arrangements with the China-controlled energy company CEFC. Representatives of the White House and the Biden family have largely denied these corruption allegations as false and baseless.
The eight-count indictment released Monday charges Luft with offenses related to willfully failing to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA, to trafficking in weapons, violations of Iranian sanctions, and false statements to federal agents. He was arrested on February 17 in Cyprus on the US charges, but later fled after being released on bail while extradition proceedings were underway and remains a fugitive, the Justice Department said. in a Monday night press release announcing his indictment.
Damian Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said Luft “engaged in multiple serious criminal schemes.”
“He overturned US foreign agent registration laws to seek to promote Chinese policies by acting through a former senior US government official; he acted as a broker in transactions dangerous weapons and Iranian oil; and he told multiple lies about his crimes to law enforcement,” Williams said in the Justice Department statement. “As reflected in the charges unveiled today, our office will continue to work vigorously with our law enforcement partners to detect and hold accountable those who surreptitiously attempt to perpetrate malicious foreign influence campaigns here in the States. -United.”
Claims to be an anti-Biden whistleblower
A longtime energy security analyst who splits his time between Maryland and Israel, Luft has accused members of the Biden family of corruption and receiving payments from people linked to Chinese military intelligence or energy companies.
Luft, whose Institute for Global Security Analysis focuses on energy security, denied wrongdoing in tweets in which he also claimed the Justice Department case against him was politically motivated.
Sen. Ron Johnson, one of several prominent Republicans to feature Luft as a whistleblower witness, also suggested in a July 9 tweet that the Justice Department’s case against Luft is tied to his alleged interest in exposing corruption. of the Biden family.
“Is the DOJ trying to stop Dr. Gal Luft from publicly exposing Biden family corruption?” asked Johnson, R-Wisc., the top Republican on the Senate Standing Investigations Subcommittee. “The American people deserve the truth and Dr. Luft needs the chance to testify before Congress.”
“Multiple and serious criminal schemes”
According to the indictment, Luft conspired with others to act in the United States to advance China’s interests without registering as foreign agents.
As part of the scheme, using in part his role as co-director of the nonprofit think tank, Luft “agreed to covertly recruit and pay, on behalf of directors based in China,” a former senior U.S. government official . These efforts began in 2016 when the former official was an adviser to Trump and continued after Trump was in the White House, to publicly support pro-China policies without informing the Justice Department of their hidden pro-China agenda. Chinese, according to the indictment.
The Trump adviser is identified only as Individual-1 in the file. Luft then suggested he was maneuvering to put adviser Trump in a good political position to help China. “We don’t want to give it all away yet, just enough to let ‘people’ know that it’s [i.e., Individual-1] is in the hall of power,” Luft reportedly said. He also said “there may be a supremely unique opportunity for China” given their clandestine role in promoting pro-Beijing policies in the United States.
Luft also acted as a broker or intermediary to find both buyers and sellers of certain weapons and other materials, without authorization to do so, as required by US law, in violation of the Control Act. arms exports. This included negotiating a deal for Chinese companies to sell certain weapons to Libya, including anti-tank launchers, grenade launchers and mortar shells, which Luft and his associates described as “toys” in coded language, according to the Department of Justice. .
The indictment also alleges that Luft negotiated deals for certain weapons to be sold to the United Arab Emirates, including aerial bombs and rockets, and for certain weapons to be sold by a Chinese company in Kenya, including unmanned aerial “strike” vehicles or drones.
At one point, during a voluntary interview with U.S. law enforcement where he was asked about his involvement in arms trafficking, Luft “made several false statements, including that he did not seek to engage in or profit from arms deals”.
Justice Department officials also said Luft conspired with others and attempted to broker deals for Iranian oil, ordering an associate to label it “Brazilian” oil in an effort to cover up the activity in violation of US sanctions against Iran. Luft also lied about it, according to the indictment, making multiple false statements, “including that he tried to prevent oil deals with Iran and was not present at the meetings. with the Chinese energy company and the Iranians”.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: US accuses fugitive energy analyst of being China agent and arms dealer