A fugitive who claimed to have provided the FBI with information about the Biden family’s business dealings in China faces decades in prison on alleged arms trafficking and other Iran-related charges.
Gal Luft, a 57-year-old American-Israeli dual citizen, is accused of acting as an unregistered agent of China and attempting to broker the sale of Iranian oil in violation of sanctions, federal prosecutors in Manhattan said Monday.
The indictment, filed by a grand jury in 2022 and unsealed Monday, also alleges Luft recruited and paid a former senior US government official on behalf of China-based clients in 2016 without identifying as a foreigner as required by law To agent .
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Prosecutors did not identify the former officer but said he was working as an adviser to then President-elect Donald Trump at the time. Luft is accused of urging the adviser to support pro-China policies, including by writing comments on the adviser’s behalf that were published in a Chinese newspaper.
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The Department of Justice (DOJ) building. Biden family whistleblower Gal Luft has been indicted by the DOJ. (Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Luft was arrested in Cyprus in February amid US charges but fled after being released on bail awaiting extradition, prosecutors said. He is not currently in US custody.
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The indictment comes days after the New York Post published a 14-minute video by Luft, taken at an undisclosed location, in which he claims he was arrested in Cyprus to prevent him from appearing before the Oversight Committee of the… testifying before the House of Representatives that the Biden family was allegedly there and bribed by a source with ties to the Chinese military.
President Biden has attacked reporters who have asked him about alleged corruption in which he and his son, Hunter Biden, are involved. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
In the video, Luft claimed to have leaked this information to FBI and Justice Department officials during a March 2019 meeting in Brussels, but this was allegedly covered up.
Luft is Co-Director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, which bills itself as a Washington, DC-based think tank focused on energy, security and economic trends.
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The think tank did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Prosecutors said Luft brokered a deal for Chinese companies to sell arms to countries including Libya, the United Arab Emirates and Kenya, despite not having the license required by US law to do so.
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He is also accused of arranging meetings between Iranian officials and a Chinese energy company to discuss oil deals despite US sanctions.
Fox News’ David Spunt and Portal contributed to this report.