Retired New York cop sentenced for serving as Chinese agent

Former New York Police Department Sergeant Michael McMahon received a sentence of a year and a half in prison on Wednesday for acting as an illegal agent on behalf of the Chinese government, according to the Department of Justice. The former cop’s sentence included an $11,000 fine. McMahon, who at the time of the crimes was retired from the police department, served as a private investigator and helped co-defendants Zhu Yong and Congying Zheng in a forced international repatriation effort by the Chinese government. A federal jury convicted McMahon of acting as an illegal agent for China, along with interstate stalking and conspiracy to commit interstate stalking, according to the DOJ. Zhu and Zheng also received sentences of over a year in prison in January for their roles in the scheme.

What was the purpose of stalking? Zhu and Zheng employed McMahon as a private investigator between 2016 and 2019 to track down two unnamed U.S. residents referred to in court documents as John and Jane Doe. The trio undertook an international campaign to threaten, harass, surveil, and intimidate the Does, attempting to force them to return to China to face alleged corruption charges, the DOJ said.

McMahon located John Doe and reported sensitive information about the Does to his employers while knowing their intention to use the information to force the family’s return to China. McMahon texted another investigator about his employer's mission of forced repatriation, according to court documents. The veteran cop suggested ways to harass Doe to further Zhu and Zheng’s mission, including parking outside Doe’s home and researching what his university-aged daughter studied and where she lived on campus.

The private investigator received nearly $20,000 for his services, which he deposited into his son’s bank account. Investigators noted that it was the only time McMahon deposited a client's money into his son’s bank account and characterized the move as an attempt to hide the money’s source.

Dig deeper: Read Lauren Canterberry’s report from December about a man admitting to running a secret Chinese police station in New York City.