CHINA ‘SPY’ IN NYPD
Feds say Beijing used Finest to track opponents
Baimadajie Angwang, 33, a community affairs officer in the 111th Precinct in Queens, was secretly working for the Chinese government, feds charged yesterday. Using NYPD resources, he allegedly collected information on potential opponents of China, including Tibetan immigrants to the US. He faces up to 55 years in prison.
An NYPD cop and Army reservist with a “secret” security clearance betrayed fellow Tibetans in the Big Apple by spying on them and passing the intel on to a Chinese government handler, authorities said on Monday.
Baimadajie Angwang, a community-affairs officer in the 111th Precinct in Queens, allegedly began acting on behalf of the People’s Republic of China in May 2018 with a handler stationed in the Chinese Consulate in Manhattan, according to a complaint unsealed in Brooklyn federal court.
His contacts with the consulate began in 2014, the papers say.
FBI New York Assistant Director-in-Charge William Sweeney Jr. called Angwang “the definition of an insider threat,” alleging he “operated on behalf of a foreign government, lied to gain his clearance, and used his position as an NYPD police officer to aid the Chinese government’s subversive and illegal attempts to recruit intelligence sources.”
Angwang — a 33-year-old married father who lives in a Long Island home with a US flag flying out front — is accused of serving as an “intelligence asset” whose duties included gathering information on potential opponents of the Chinese government, including religious and ethnic minorities.
His handler, identified only as “PRC Official-2,” is believed to have been assigned to the China Association for Preservation and Development of Tibetan Culture, a division of the Chinese United Front Work Department responsible for “neutralizing sources of potential opposition” to the Chinese government, court papers say.
Angwang, an ethnic Tibetan and naturalized US citizen, is accused of reporting on the activities of other ethnic Tibetans, including scoping out potential intelligence sources as well as potential troublemakers.
He allegedly called and texted Official-2’s phone at least 55 times between June 2018 and March 2020. Earlier, he called and texted another contact at the consulate — “PRC Official-1” — at least 53 times between Aug. 21, 2014, and Aug. 11, 2017, court papers say.
During a wiretapped phone call on Nov. 14, 2019, Angwang informed his handler — whom he greeted as “Boss” — that several ethnic Tibetans were working in the offices of unspecified elected New York officials, according to court papers.
“They are mainly, mainly, mainly in Queens, at the Queens area state legislator’s office. These offices all have our people working there, because our population is getting larger. They hire them to pull in more votes, to pull in more votes,” he allegedly said.
“But I also feel that some community groups may use their relationships to associate with them, to chant slogans, to utter nonsense. They may, may, may create more work for you.”
Angwang also “asked PRC Official-2 for taskings and volunteered to assist PRC Official-2 by providing information from NYPD systems,” court papers say.
And Angwang allegedly “provided consulate officials access to senior NYPD officials through invitations to official NYPD events.”
He allegedly expressed a desire to bring Official-2 to NYPD events to “raise our country’s soft power,” and offered to provide the handler with information “worth money or not worth money to your side.”
Wiretaps allegedly caught Angwang boasting about his NYPD job over the phone, telling his handler that his bosses “should be happy . . . because you have stretched your reach into the police.”
Angwang also “stated that his motivation to be promoted in the NYPD was to assist the PRC and bring ‘glory to China,’ ” according to court papers.
NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said Angwang had been suspended without pay.
“As alleged in this federal complaint, Baimadajie Angwang violated every oath he took in this country — one to the United States, another to the US Army and a third to this Police Department,” Shea said, adding that the NYPD’s Intelligence and Internal Affairs bureaus had worked closely with the FBI in the case.
Angwang came to the US on a cultural-exchange visa, overstayed a second visa and sought asylum on grounds that he had allegedly been arrested and tortured in China “due partly to his Tibetan ethnicity,” court papers say.
Still, the papers say, “Angwang has traveled back to the PRC on numerous occasions since his asylum application was granted.”
Both his parents are members of the Chinese Communist Party, with his dad a retired soldier in the People’s Liberation Army and his mom a retired government worker, court papers say. He also has a brother who is a PLA reservist, and all three family members live in China, court papers say.
Angwang was hired by the NYPD on Jan. 6, 2016, and most recently earned about $53,500 during fiscal 2019, according to online city payroll records.
In April and May 2016, he wired a total of $150,000 to his brother and another person in China, court papers say.
In addition, he has allegedly “received multiple substantial wire transfers from the PRC,” including nearly $50,000 from his brother in May 2016.
He and his wife also “received separate credits of $50,000 and $20,000 from an account held in the name of an individual at the Bank of China in New York” in 2014, court papers say.
Angwang holds the rank of staff sergeant in the US Army Reserve and is part of an Airborne Civil Affairs battalion stationed at Fort Dix, NJ, where court papers say he “assists in planning, training, advising and executing civil-military programs.”
He holds a “secret” security clearance from the Defense Department and in May 2019 allegedly lied on an eligibility form that he also filled out in 2014 by denying he had any contact with a foreign government or its representatives or maintained contact with relatives with ties to the Chinese army.
Angwang appeared in a US Marine Corps dress uniform at a Police Benevolent Association event in November, during which he posed with officials including PBA President Pat Lynch, according to a since-deleted Facebook post.
At the time, the PBA described him as a Marine sergeant who “served one tour in Iraq and two tours in Afghanistan.”
The USMC didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
In addition to charges of illegally acting as an agent of a foreign government and making false statements, Angwang is charged with wire fraud and obstruction of an official proceeding.
If convicted, he faces a maximum 55 years in prison.
He was ordered held without bond after declining to seek release during a brief video appearance in Brooklyn federal court.
He said only, “Yes, your honor,” to a series of procedural questions from Magistrate Judge Roanne Mann, who didn’t schedule his next appearance.
Angwang’s lawyer, John Carman, declined to comment.