Former NYPD Sergeant Michael McMahon was sentenced to solely 18 months in jail on Wednesday for his 2023 conviction as an unlawful agent of Communist China.
The Brooklyn federal jury convicted McMahon of interstate stalking and performing as an unregistered international agent for China, a nation that continues to threaten U.S. sovereignty and suppress dissent.
His actions align with the Chinese language Communist Get together’s marketing campaign to intimidate and repatriate alleged “criminals” residing overseas — usually dissidents fleeing persecution.
Whereas McMahon escaped a conspiracy cost, his conviction exposes the insidious attain of international affect in America’s personal yard.
At this time, in federal court docket in Brooklyn, New York, Michael McMahon, 57, of Mahwah, New Jersey, was sentenced to 18 months in jail and ordered to pay an $11,000 high quality for performing as an unlawful agent of the federal government of the Individuals’s Republic of China (PRC) and interstate stalking and conspiracy to commit the identical, for his participation in a scheme to coerce repatriation of a U.S. resident to the PRC as a part of its worldwide repatriation effort referred to as “Operation Fox Hunt.”
McMahon and co-defendants Zhu Yong, 68, of East Elmhurst, New York, and Congying Zheng, 29, of Brooklyn, had been convicted by a federal jury in June 2023 following a three-week trial. In January 2025, Zhu and Zheng had been sentenced respectively to 24 months and 16 months in jail.
As confirmed at trial, between roughly 2016 and 2019, the defendants and their co-conspirators participated in a global marketing campaign to threaten, harass, surveil, and intimidate John Doe #1 and his household as a way to pressure him and his spouse, Jane Doe #1, to return to the PRC to face purported corruption expenses.
Starting in 2012, John Doe #1 and Jane Doe #1 had been focused for repatriation as a part of the PRC’s transnational repression applications referred to as “Operation Fox Hunt” and “Operation Sky Web.” John Doe #1 and his household had accordingly sought to maintain their deal with out of public information.
Zhu employed McMahon, a retired NYPD sergeant working as a non-public investigator, to find John Doe #1. McMahon obtained delicate details about John Doe #1, which he then reported again to Zhu and others, together with a PRC police officer.
McMahon additionally carried out surveillance outdoors the New Jersey residence of John Doe #1’s relative and offered Zhu and PRC officers with detailed studies of what he noticed. The operation was supervised and directed by a number of PRC officers, together with a PRC police officer and a PRC prosecutor.
As McMahon knew, the operation was meant not solely to find John Doe #1, however to coerce him to return to the PRC by exerting strain on his members of the family.
In April 2017, PRC officers threatened to jail John Doe #1’s sister, who lived within the PRC, as a way to coerce John Doe #1’s then-82-year-old father to journey from the PRC to their relative’s residence in New Jersey.
John Doe #1’s father, who had just lately suffered a mind hemorrhage, was so frail that a physician accompanied him for the journey.
McMahon adopted John Doe #1’s father from the relative’s New Jersey residence, and, by doing so, was in a position to be taught John Doe #1’s deal with. McMahon instantly offered this info to a PRC operative.
On Sept. 4, 2018, Zheng and one other co-conspirator drove to the New Jersey residence of John Doe #1 and Jane Doe #1 – on the deal with that McMahon had offered – the place they pounded on the entrance door, tried to enter the home, after which peered by the home windows behind the house.
They left a observe on the entrance door informing John Doe #1 that his “spouse and kids will probably be okay” if John Doe #1 surrendered himself to face a ten-year jail time period within the PRC.
McMahon knew that the themes of his investigation had been wished by the PRC authorities, a proven fact that he texted about with one other investigator he contracted to assist him.
Following his arrest, McMahon acknowledged understanding that his employers wished to get the sufferer again to China “so they may prosecute him.”
After offering the victims’ deal with, McMahon advised his surveillance associate that he was “ready for a name” to seek out out what to do subsequent. McMahon’s associate responded, “Yeah. From NJ State Police about an abduction,” to which McMahon responded “Lol.”
McMahon later recommended to a PRC co-conspirator that they “harass” John Doe #1 by “[p]ark[ing] outdoors his residence and let[ting] him know we’re there.”
McMahon took different investigative steps designed to harass the victims, equivalent to researching their daughter’s college residence and faculty main. McMahon was paid greater than $19,000 in whole for his position within the unlawful repatriation scheme.
In an obvious try to hide the supply, McMahon deposited funds from his PRC shoppers into his son’s checking account, the one time he had achieved so with consumer funds.
Beforehand, three co-defendants pleaded responsible in reference to their roles within the PRC-directed harassment and intimidation marketing campaign. They’re awaiting sentencing.
Sue J. Bai, head of the Justice Division’s Nationwide Safety Division, U.S. Legal professional John J. Durham for the Jap District of New York, and Assistant Director Roman Rozhavsky of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division made the announcement.
The FBI New York Discipline Workplace investigated the case, with invaluable help offered by the Division of State’s Diplomatic Safety Service.
