Ex-New York police sergeant sentenced to 1.5 years for acting as Chinese agent

Michael McMahon was charged with being hired as a private investigator to surveil a New Jersey resident who was accused by China of corruption, as part of a global campaign by Chinese law enforcement to repatriate alleged criminals living abroad, known as “Operation Fox Hunt”.

A federal jury in Brooklyn found McMahon guilty of interstate stalking and of acting as an agent of China without notifying the US attorney general. The jury found him not guilty of conspiracy to act as a foreign agent. McMahon had pleaded not guilty to all charges.

“McMahon, a former law enforcement officer who swore an oath to protect the public, went rogue and dishonourably engaged in a scheme at the direction of the People’s Republic of China,” John Durham, the top federal prosecutor in Brooklyn, said in a statement.

McMahon said he thought he was working for a company seeking to recover embezzled funds, and would not have taken the job if he knew the Chinese government was behind it.

“I was unwittingly used,” he said in court.