EXCLUSIVE: Property Mogul Indicted In NYC Mayor’s Office Bribery Scheme Listed As Chinese Intel Official

The property developer who allegedly bribed former New York Mayor Eric Adams’ chief-of-staff has served as a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) intelligence official and hobnobbed with party bosses for years, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation discovered.

Authorities arrested Andy Zhu, founder of New York-based real estate firm East Times Group (ETG), and three others including Adams’ former chief-of-staff, Frank Carone, on charges of fraud and money laundering in June, according to the indictment. Between October 2022 and September 2023, the property mogul allegedly bribed Carone and his brother with $120,000 to successfully pressure the New York City Department of Social Services to award Zhu’s Microtel Inn with a $6,825,000 “emergency shelter contract” in order to convert the Long Island City hotel into housing for “migrant asylum seekers.”

All the defendants have pleaded not guilty, and bail for Zhu, who is a Chinese national, was set at $8 million because of his “extensive foreign ties to a country that does not extradite to the United States,” prosecutors argued, the New York Post reported.

Chinese government and state media reports translated by the DCNF reveal that Zhu’s foreign ties include serving as an official within several arms of a CCP influence and intelligence agency called the United Front Work Department (UFWD), which Beijing uses to steer foreign policy and “gain access to advanced foreign technology,” according to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC).

ETG and Zhu — who uses the Chinese names Yan Po Zhu and Zhu Sandong — could not be reached for comment and Zhu’s attorney, Stephen Scaring, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

“United Front work is not a temporary political activity, but rather a major strategic undertaking that has long been directed by the CCP Central Committee,” Dr. Li-Meng Yan, a virologist who has accused the CCP of developing COVID-19 as a bioweapon, told the DCNF. “[T]he focus of United Front work includes not only influencing overseas Chinese communities, but also establishing long-term relationship networks with foreign governments, legislative bodies, universities, businesses, media organizations and other social institutions.”

‘Party And State Missions’ 

Zhu has repeatedly met with high-level Chinese government officials and holds several positions within UFWD arms, including serving as an “overseas committee member” of the UFWD’s All-China Federation Of Returned Overseas Chinese (ACFROC), according to DCNF translations of Chinese government documents and Zhu’s social media posts.

“ACFROC is responsible for building relationship networks, conducting influence operations, identifying and cultivating individuals who may be useful to the CCP — including useful idiots or agents — and, when necessary, providing personnel, communication channels, or social-resource support for national security, intelligence, or other party and state missions,” said Yan, who hosts The Voice of Dr. Yan podcast.

Zhu has attended multiple New York welcome banquets for ACFROC leaders, including a May 2019 event for ACFROC’s chairman, Wan Lijun, during which Zhu was filmed on stage alongside the intelligence official and other attendees in front of a banner welcoming the ACFROC delegation, footage shows.