Head of US think tank charged with acting as Chinese agent

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan announced on Monday that the head of a U.S. think group has been charged with working as an unregistered agent of China and attempting to negotiate the sale of Iranian oil and weaponry.

Gal Luft, a dual citizen of the United States and Israel, is charged with hiring and compensating a former senior U.S. government official in 2016 on behalf of principals based in China without filing the necessary paperwork to be recognised as a foreign agent.

The former official, who was not named by the prosecution, was allegedly serving as Donald Trump’s adviser at the time. Luft is accused of pressuring the advisor to back measures that benefit China, including by writing comments that were published under the advisor’s identity.

A Twitter account bearing Luft’s name, with more than 15,000 followers, said in a Feb. 18 tweet that he had been arrested in Cyprus “on a politically motivated extradition request by the U.S.”

“I’ve never been an arms dealer,” Luft said in the tweet. He did not immediately respond to a direct message sent by Reuters seeking comment.

Luft, 57, was arrested in February in Cyprus on U.S. charges, but fled after being released on bail while awaiting extradition, prosecutors said. He is not currently in U.S. custody.

Luft is co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, which describes itself as a Washington, D.C.-based think tank focused on energy, security and economic trends.

“Gal is a man of total integrity and honesty,” the think tank said in a statement on Tuesday. “We are confident in his innocence.”

According to prosecutors, Luft arranged a deal for Chinese corporations to sell weapons to nations like Libya, the United Arab Emirates, and Kenya despite the fact that they did not have the necessary authorization under US law.

Despite U.S. sanctions on the Middle Eastern nation, he is also charged with arranging meetings between Iranian officials and a Chinese energy company to discuss oil transactions.

(With agency inputs)