A US thinktank chief who accuses Joe Biden of China-linked corruption involving his son, Hunter Biden, and who has been presented by Republicans as a “missing” witness against the president, was charged with China-linked offenses including failing to register as a foreign agent, arms trafficking and violations of sanctions on Iran.
Gal Luft, 57 and a dual US-Israeli citizen, is co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS), based in Maryland, near Washington.
An indictment handed down in November was unsealed on Monday with Luft described as a fugitive, having skipped bail in Cyprus in April while awaiting extradition.
Announcing the charges, Damian Williams, US 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 US 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.”
News of the charges seemed guaranteed to infuriate Republicans in Congress seeking to use Hunter Biden’s troubled personal life and business dealings in attacks on his father, potentially including attempts to bring about impeachment proceedings.
Last Friday, James Comer of Kentucky, chair of the House oversight committee, told the rightwing network Newsmax Luft was “a credible witness that the FBI flew all the way to Brussels to interview and sent several agents to interview”.
Earlier, in a video published by the New York Post, Luft denied wrongdoing. He was arrested, he claimed, to stop him testifying to Comer’s committee about alleged China-linked corruption involving the Bidens.
“I’m not a Republican,” Luft said. “I’m not a Democrat. I have no political motive or agenda … I did it out of deep concern that if the Bidens were to come to power, the country would be facing the same traumatic Russia collusion scandal [the investigation of Russian election interference and links between Donald Trump and Moscow] only this time with China.”
Saying he “warned the [US] government about potential risk to the integrity of the 2020 elections”, Luft added: “Ask yourself, who is the real criminal in this story?”
He skipped bail, he said, “because I did not believe I will receive a fair trial in a New York court”.
In New York, prosecutors allege Luft “agree[d] to covertly recruit and pay, on behalf of principals based in China, a former high-ranking US government official … including in 2016 while the former official was an adviser to the then-president-elect [Trump], to publicly support certain policies with respect to China”.
The former official and an alleged Chinese co-conspirator were not named.
Luft is also alleged to have “conspired … to broker illicit arms transactions with, among others, certain Chinese individuals and entities”; to have conspired with a Chinese energy company “to broker deals for Iranian oil – which he directed an associate to refer to as ‘Brazilian’ oil in an effort to … evade sanctions”; and to have made “multiple false statements” to law enforcement.
The SDNY listed maximum jail sentences for the charges against Luft, ranging from five years for conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act to 20 years for arms trafficking offenses and sanctions violations.
Noting Luft’s “fugitive” status, the SDNY asked people with information about his whereabouts to contact the FBI or the nearest US embassy or consulate.
In a statement, IAGS said: “Gal is a man of total integrity and honesty. We are confident in his innocence.”
Tim Miller, a Republican operative turned “Never Trumper”, said: “So the guy who was supposedly gonna blow the whistle on Biden taking payments from foreigners was actually paying off Trump admin officials himself on behalf of China!! Could this be more on the nose?”
