The Justice Department on Monday unsealed 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 U.S. sanctions.
Gal Luft, a dual U.S. and Israeli citizen, is accused of recruiting and paying a former high-ranking U.S. government official – and advisor to then president-elect Donald Trump — on behalf of principals based in China in 2016 without registering in the U.S. as a foreign agent as federal law requires.
The 57-year-old fugitive has become a key figure in Republican-led corruption investigations into President Joe Biden, accusing him, son Hunter Biden and other family members of having improper financial arrangements with the China-controlled energy company CEFC. The White House and Biden family representatives have issued broad denials of such claims of corruption as being false and without merit.
The eight-count indictment unsealed Monday charges Luft with offenses related to willfully failing to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA, arms trafficking, Iranian sanctions violations and making false statements to federal agents. He was arrested on February 17 in Cyprus based on the U.S. charges but subsequently fled after being released on bail while extradition proceedings were pending and remains a fugitive, the Justice Department said in a news release late Monday announcing his indictment.
Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said Luft “engaged in multiple, serious criminal schemes.”
“He subverted foreign agent registration laws in the United States to seek to promote Chinese policies by acting through a former high-ranking U.S. Government official; he acted as a broker in deals for dangerous weapons and Iranian oil; and he told multiple lies about his crimes to law enforcement,” Williams said in the Justice Department statement. “As the charges unsealed today reflect, our Office will continue to work vigorously with our law enforcement partners to detect and hold accountable those who surreptitiously attempt to perpetrate malign foreign influence campaigns here in the United States.”