NEW YORK—A former Chinese diplomat and executive for the U.S. arm of a Chinese construction conglomerate went on trial on March 5 on American charges that he forced Chinese laborers to work on New York area construction sites under a form of “debt bondage.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Heeren in his opening statement in federal court in Brooklyn told jurors that Dan Zhong was “a leader of the U.S. arm of a criminal enterprise that exploited forced labor for personal gain.”
