NY Businessman Sentenced for Harassing Dissident on Behalf of Chinese Regime

The defendant ‘threatened, harassed, and attempted to intimidate a U.S. resident and his family,' the FBI said.

An Quanzhong stands outside of the federal courthouse in New York City on March 19, 2025. Cai Rong/The Epoch Times

A New York businessman has been sentenced to 20 months in prison for crimes related to Operation Fox Hunt, an extralegal initiative by Beijing to repatriate alleged fugitives and dissidents to China.

An Quanzhong, 58, a Chinese national and permanent U.S. resident, pleaded guilty in May 2024 to acting as an unregistered agent for China. He and his daughter, An Guangyan, were among seven people indicted in October 2022 for trying to harass a dissident into returning to China. The younger An has not been sentenced.

Prosecutors did not name the dissident but stated that he was a U.S. resident living in the Eastern District of New York and was on the “list of top 100 priority fugitives” as part of the Chinese communist regime’s Operation Fox Hunt.

In federal court in the Brooklyn borough of New York City on March 19, Judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto sentenced An Quanzhong to 20 months in prison and ordered him to pay a $5 million penalty, which included $1.3 million in restitution to the U.S. resident whom the defendants had targeted in their plot, and a $50,000 fine, according to a March 19 statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.

The plot started in 2017 and continued until the elder An’s arrest in 2022. In one incident, he told the victim’s son that Chinese officials would “keep pestering” him and make his “daily life uncomfortable” if the victim’s son couldn’t convince his father to return to China, according to prosecutors.

During the federal investigation, An also admitted that a lawsuit filed by a Chinese state-owned corporation against the victim and his son in New York was “frivolous” and was filed with the intention of pressuring the victim to return to China.

“For years, Quanzhong An threatened, harassed, and attempted to intimidate a U.S. resident and his family at the behest of the People’s Republic of China, with the ultimate goal of strong-arming the individual into leaving the United States and returning to China to face an unknown fate,” Leslie R. Backschies, FBI acting assistant director in charge, said in a statement.

“Threats, harassment, and intimidation—whether perpetrated by individuals or nation states—will not be tolerated in this country, and the FBI will continue to lead the charge to protect all individuals who are threatened and harassed on U.S. soil.”

At sentencing, Matsumoto also considered An Quanzhong’s role in a bank fraud and money laundering scheme, in which he moved millions of dollars from China into the United States by deceiving U.S. financial institutions about the money’s source and intended purpose, according to the March 19 statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

According to a court document filed by prosecutors in February, An traveled to China twice, in 2020 and 2022, to receive directives about the victim’s repatriation from the provincial Central Commission for Discipline Inspection in eastern China’s Shandong Province. The commission is a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) organ that investigates and punishes cadres suspected of crimes.

“Upon return to the United States, the defendant communicated harassing messages from the provincial commission to the family of [the victim],” prosecutors wrote.

One of the defendants indicted, Tian Peng, a Chinese national living in China, was employed by the Shandong disciplinary commission.

Prosecutors initially sought a 60-month imprisonment against An, saying that the defendant was a “critical and longstanding member of the repatriation scheme” and that his conduct “poses a serious threat to U.S. national security and sovereignty,” according to the court document.

In response to an email inquiry from The Epoch Times, An’s lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, said he was disappointed by the sentence.

“However, when the government recommends 60 months, and the Department of Probation recommends 36 months, a sentence of 20 months with credit for the 7 months already served is not that severe,” Brafman said.

“Mr. An, however, is, on balance, a very good person, and accordingly, seeing him serve any further prison sentence is heartbreaking.”

In December 2013, according to China’s state-run media, An was selected to become one of the standing committee members of the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese.

The U.S.–China Economic and Security Review Commission has identified the federation as one of the Chinese regime’s United Front organizations.

In a memo published in 2023, the House Select Committee on the CCP warned that Beijing considers its network of United Front organizations as a “magic weapon” that serves multiple purposes, including gathering intelligence, shaping other countries’ political environments, and facilitating technology transfer to China.

Spain-based human rights group Safeguard Defenders said in a 2024 report that Beijing had successfully repatriated more than 12,000 people to China via Operation Fox Hunt and a related program called Sky Net from 2014 to 2023.

In January, a Chinese national named Zhu Yong was sentenced to two years in prison in connection with Operation Fox Hunt. Zhu surveilled, harassed, and stalked a former Chinese official named Xu Jin and his family living in suburban New Jersey.