A New York City police officer accused of acting as an agent of the Chinese government has pleaded not guilty at a federal court hearing.
Baimadajie Angwang, a New York City Police Department officer arrested last month on charges of acting as an agent of the Chinese government, told Magistrate Judge Roanne Mann during a hearing in federal court in the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn, N.Y., that he would plead not guilty, the New York media outlet News Day reported Wednesday (Oct. 28, 2020).
The Daily News quoted Angwang’s attorney as saying, “Today’s hearing is a small step toward our efforts to prove the Marine Corps veteran’s innocence.”
Earlier this month, Magistrate Judge Lois Bloom of the Eastern District of New York ordered Aung Vang released on $1 million bail with an electronic monitoring device to restrict movement at his Long Island home, but prosecutors insisted that Aung Vang was a flight risk and appealed, and then Judge Eric Komitee of the Eastern District of New York overturned The decision to grant bail. Aung Vang, while not charged with espionage, faces a maximum sentence of 55 years in prison if convicted, and there appears to be a strong basis for the prosecution’s charges, Cometi said.
Judge Komiti said, “The defendant clearly has strong ties to China, and the United States has no extradition treaty with China.”
Aung Vang has appealed the no-bail ruling to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
A naturalized U.S. citizen, born in China’s Tibet Autonomous Region, Aung-Wang, 33, was arrested last month and charged with acting as an agent of a foreign government without notifying the U.S. government, wire fraud and making false statements.
Ngawang is accused of maintaining close contact with officials at the Chinese Consulate in New York City and providing information about the Tibetan community in the New York metropolitan area to Chinese officials.
Ngawang was a community liaison officer with the 111th Precinct in Bayside, Queens, New York City. He was also a sergeant in the U.S. Army Reserves and previously served in the U.S. Marine Corps.
New York City Police Commissioner Dermot F Shea said Aung Vang has been suspended without pay. At the time of his arrest, Shea said that Ngawang had betrayed the United States, the U.S. Army and the New York City Police Department, as alleged in the federal complaint.
The U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York said Aung Vang’s work for the Chinese government was to “identify potential intelligence sources” and “identify potential threats to the People’s Republic of China in the New York metropolitan area,” and that he was expected to be invited to official New York City Police Department events as a guest speaker. The recordings show that Aung San Sang told the Chinese consulate official responsible for contacting him that he wanted to be promoted in the NYPD in order to “help the People’s Republic of China and raise the profile of China. The recordings show that Aung Vang told the Chinese consulate official responsible for contacting him that he hoped to get a promotion in the NYPD in order to “help the People’s Republic of China and bring glory to China.
Prosecutors also noted that Aung Vang’s parents lived in China and were both members of the Chinese Communist Party, that his mother was a government official, that his father was a former member of the People’s Liberation Army, and that Aung Vang’s brother was a reservist.
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