A fugitive who claimed to have provided the FBI with information on the Biden family's business dealings in China is now facing multiple charges, including alleged arms trafficking and acting as an unregistered agent of China.
Gal Luft, a 57-year-old dual U.S.-Israeli citizen, has been indicted by federal prosecutors in Manhattan for his involvement in brokering the sale of Iranian oil in violation of sanctions.
According to the indictment, Luft is accused of recruiting and paying a former high-ranking U.S. government official on behalf of principals based in China in 2016, without registering as a foreign agent as required by law. Although the former official was not identified, it was revealed that he was working as an adviser to then-President-elect Donald Trump at the time. Luft allegedly pushed the adviser to support policies favorable to China, even drafting comments in the adviser's name that were published in a Chinese newspaper.
Luft was initially arrested in February in Cyprus on U.S. charges but managed to flee after being released on bail while awaiting extradition. He is currently not in U.S. custody. The recent indictment comes shortly after The New York Post published a 14-minute video of Luft, recorded at an undisclosed location, in which he claimed that his arrest in Cyprus was an attempt to prevent him from testifying to the House Oversight Committee about alleged bribery involving the Biden family and a source with ties to the Chinese military. Luft stated that he had provided this information to FBI and Department of Justice officials during a meeting in Brussels in March 2019, but it was allegedly covered up.
Luft is the co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank focused on energy, security, and economic trends. The think tank has not yet responded to requests for comment on the charges against Luft.
Prosecutors have also accused Luft of brokering deals for Chinese companies to sell weapons to countries such as Libya, the United Arab Emirates, and Kenya, despite lacking the necessary license to do so under U.S. law. Additionally, he is alleged to have arranged meetings between Iranian officials and a Chinese energy company to discuss oil deals, in violation of U.S. sanctions.
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