Federal prosecutors have dropped charges against an NYPD cop who was accused of spying for the Chinese government, according to a new report.
The U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York’s office moved to dismiss the case on Friday, explaining in court filings that their investigation had “obtained additional information bearing on the charges,” the New York Daily News reported. The charges included acting as an illegal agent of China, wire fraud, and making false statements.
Baimadajie Angwang was arrested in September 2020 and accused of spying on New York City’s Tibetan communities for the Chinese government through his work as a community liaison officer in the 111th Precinct in Queens. Prosecutors accused Angwang of providing the Chinese government with access to senior NYPD officials through invitations to serious events and offering the Chinese an inside look at the operations of the police department.
Angwang was also an Army reservist who was granted secret-level security clearance by the Department of Defense. FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Field Office William F. Sweeney called Angwang the “definition of an insider threat” in 2020.
Angwang was granted asylum in the U.S. after overstaying his visa. He claimed he was tortured by the Chinese government because of his Tibetan ethnicity. However, Angwang’s mother and father were Chinese Communist Party members and his brother and father worked for the People’s Liberation Army, prosecutors said.
Federal prosecutors had obtained wiretapped conversations between Angwang and his Chinese handler at the PRC Consulate in New York City. In one conversation, Angwang said he wanted to be promoted within the NYPD to “bring glory to China,” prosecutors said. He also apparently said in a separate call that his handler’s bosses in Beijing “should be happy . . . because you have stretched your reach into the police.”
Angwang’s attorney John F. Carman said in a statement to the New York Post that federal prosecutors are using the Classified Information Procedures Act to forgo having to explain why the indictment was dropped “in an effort to give the impression that this was a legitimate prosecution, which it was not.”
“Mr. Angwang is a great American who served his country in combat in Afghanistan and our government repaid him by treating him like he was the leader of the Taliban,” Carman said.