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Three of the defendants — Long Island residents Fan “Frank” Liu, age 62, of Jericho, and Matthew Ziburis, age 49, of Oyster Bay, and Qiang “Jason” Sun, age 40, of China — allegedly perpetrated in the scheme to target United States residents whose political views and actions are disfavored by the People's Republic of China government, such as advocating for democracy in the PRC, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.
Liu is president of a purported media company based in New York City and Ziburis is a former correctional officer for the State of Florida and a bodyguard, authorities said, adding that Sun is a PRC-based employee of an international technology company.
The two others charged are Craig Miller, age 48, of Hastings, Minnesota, and Derrick Taylor, age 60, of Irvine, California.
Miller is a 15-year employee of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), who most recently was assigned as a Deportation Officer to DHS's Enforcement and Removal Operations in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Taylor is a retired DHS law enforcement agent who works as a private investigator in Irvine, California.
The charges against Miller and Taylor are related to their alleged obstruction of justice, including by destroying evidence, authorities said.
They were approached by agents with the FBI and asked about their "procurement and dissemination of sensitive and confidential information from a restricted federal law enforcement database regarding US-based dissidents from the PRC," the court filing by the DOJ said, adding that "this information was used by Liu and Sun in the transnational repression scheme."
US Attorney for the Eastern District Breon Peace said the case "involves a multifaceted campaign to silence, harass, discredit and spy on US residents for exercising their freedom of speech."
“As alleged in the indictment, the defendants committed various acts in furtherance of a transnational repression scheme aimed at silencing the free speech of PRC dissidents on US soil," stated FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Michael J. Driscoll. "One of the defendants was even a federal law enforcement officer who allegedly accessed government databases to aid the illegal campaign in direct conflict with his duty to protect the rights of all US residents."
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