NEW YORK—Federal prosecutors charged two men with attempting to bribe a public official with tens of thousands of dollars in a scheme to help the Chinese Communist Party “topple” the persecuted faith group Falun Gong.
John Chen, a 70-year-old U.S. citizen born in China, and Lin Feng, a Chinese citizen aged 43, have attempted to “manipulate the IRS Whistleblower Program, through bribery and deceit,” to strip a Falun Gong-run entity of its tax-exempt status, according to court filings unsealed on May 26.
The information they submitted to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is “facially deficient and contains rhetoric similar to the propaganda that the PRC Government uses to justify its subjugation and harassment of Falun Gong members,” according to the complaint….