A former high-ranking aide to New York Governor Kathy Hochul was arrested on Tuesday. Federal prosecutors accuse her of working as an intelligence agent for the Chinese government, authorities said.

Linda Sun, 41, is accused of using her high-ranking positions in state government to advance the interests of the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party in exchange for millions of dollars. Her husband, Chris Hu, 40, was also arrested in connection with the alleged plot.

The two are expected to appear in federal court in Brooklyn on Tuesday afternoon. Sun was charged with violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act and conspiracy to violate it, visa fraud, human smuggling and money laundering. Hu was charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and misuse of identification documents.

It was not immediately clear whether the couple had hired lawyers.

The arrests came six weeks after FBI agents searched the couple’s $3.5 million home in a gated community in Manhasset, Long Island.

According to her LinkedIn profile, Sun worked for state government for about 15 years and held positions in former Governor Andrew Cuomo’s administration before becoming Hochul’s deputy chief of staff.

Avi Small, a spokesman for Hochul, said Sun was hired more than a decade ago and fired in March 2023 “after discovering evidence of misconduct.” Small said Hochul’s coworkers immediately reported her actions to law enforcement and assisted authorities in handling the case.

According to the indictment, Sun blocked Taiwanese government officials from meeting high-ranking New York state officials and altered state officials’ messages on issues important to the Chinese government – all at the request of Chinese officials. Sun also helped Chinese government officials travel to the United States and meet with New York officials by providing them with unauthorized invitation letters from high-ranking state officials, according to the indictment.

“Sun’s unauthorized invitation letters to the government delegation of the People’s Republic of China contained false information in the immigration documents and induced the foreign citizens to enter the United States illegally,” federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said in a press release.

“Sun never registered with the Attorney General as a foreign agent and, in fact, actively concealed that she was acting on the orders, requests or instructions of the government of the People’s Republic of China and representatives of the Communist Party of China.”

In return, according to prosecutors, Sun received millions of dollars worth of transactions for her husband’s China-based business activities, tickets to events, employment for her cousin in China and Nanjing-style salted ducks prepared by the personal chef of a Chinese government official and delivered to Sun’s parents’ home.

According to her administration biography, Sun was appointed deputy chief of staff to Democrat Hochul in September 2021. At the time, she was the highest-ranking Asian American in the administration.

After leaving Hochul’s office, she briefly served as deputy secretary in the state Department of Labor.