U.S. federal prosecutors on Monday announced charges against a U.S.-Israeli man, saying he acted as an unregistered foreign agent on behalf of China and tried to broker weapons and Iranian oil sales.
Authorities accused Gal Luft of recruiting and paying a former U.S. government official who worked as an adviser to then president-elect Donald Trump and of trying to get the official to support policies favorable to China.
Prosecutors also said Luft arranged meetings between Iranian officials and a Chinese energy company to talk about deals involving Iran’s sanctioned oil program.
Luft serves as the co-director of a U.S. think tank focused on energy, security and economic trends and was arrested in Cyprus in February on U.S. charges. He fled after being released on bail and remains at large.
Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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