Federal prosecutors in Manhattan said that the director of a US think group has been charged with operating as an unregistered agent of China and attempting to facilitate the sale of Iranian oil and weaponry. Gal Luft, a dual citizen of the US and Israel, is charged with hiring and paying a former high-ranking US government official in 2016 on behalf of principals based in China without filing the necessary paperwork to become a registered foreign agent. Although the former official’s identity was withheld by the prosecution, they claimed that he was serving as Donald Trump’s adviser at the time. The adviser was allegedly pressured by Luft to promote policies that favored China, including by writing comments that were published in a publication under the adviser’s identity.
The Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, a Washington DC-based think tank, lists Luft as a co-director
A tweet from 18 February from Luft’s Twitter account, which has more than 15,000 followers, stated that he had been detained in Cyprus “on a politically motivated extradition request by the US.” Luft claimed in the tweet, “I’ve never been an arms dealer. A direct message from Reuters seeking comment did not receive an immediate response from him. According to authorities, Luft, 57, who was detained in February in Cyprus on US allegations, escaped after being released on bond while he was being extradited. He is not currently being held by the US. The Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, a Washington, DC-based think tank that focuses on energy, security, and economic developments, lists Luft as a co-director.
A request for comment from the think tank did not immediately receive a response. Authorities claim that Luft arranged a deal that allowed 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 as needed by US law. In addition, despite US sanctions against the Middle Eastern nation, he is charged with organizing talks between Iranian officials and a Chinese energy company to discuss oil transactions.