US-Israeli citizen charged with arms trafficking, acting as Chinese agent

By Kara Scannell, CNN

(CNN) — US prosecutors unsealed an indictment Monday charging the co-director of a think tank with illicit arms trafficking, violating US sanctions laws, and other charges, five months after he was arrested in Cyprus and fled from authorities.

The US-Israeli citizen, Gal Luft, co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, is also someone House Oversight Chairman James Comer, a top Republican, has described as an informant claiming to have incriminating information on Hunter Biden.

Luft has tweeted denials of the allegations, saying in February, “I’ve been arrested in Cyprus on a politically motivated extradition request by the US. The US, claiming I’m an arms dealer. It would be funny if it weren’t tragic. I’ve never been an arms dealer. DOJ is trying to bury me to protect Joe, Jim & Hunter Biden.”

Robert Henoch, an attorney for Luft, called the indictment “a vicious attempt to silence a witness to corruption.” The attorney said “there was no arms trading whatsoever” and that Luft didn’t act as an agent for a foreign entity or lie to federal agents, as alleged.

The Institute for the Analysis of Global Security also defended Luft in a statement, saying he is an expert on energy security, economics and geopolitics.

Luft is a fugitive, prosecutors say. He was charged with failing to register as an agent for China in the US, including acting through a former high-ranking US official who was then advising then-President-elect Donald Trump in 2016. He was also charged with acting as a middleman to aid Chinese companies buying weapons. The indictment also alleges Luft violated US sanctions by attempting to broker sales of Iranian oil.

House Republicans are investigating the Biden family’s financial dealings and have requested information from the Justice Department about its investigation into Hunter Biden, who has agreed to plead guilty to two tax misdemeanors. At least one Republican, Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, has claimed that Luft is an important witness in that investigation.

Henoch said Luft met with two prosecutors and four FBI agents in Brussels to share allegations about Biden family financial dealings with the Chinese government. “He told the DOJ prosecutors things which they did not want to hear, so they charged him with lying,” Henoch said.

Despite the charges, Comer told CNN Tuesday that he still wanted to speak with Luft because of his time at CEFC, the Chinese-backed energy company where Hunter Biden also formed a joint venture with executives of the now-bankrupt Chinese energy conglomerate. The Justice Department has scrutinized Hunter Biden’s efforts, after his father Joe Biden left the vice presidency in 2017, to secure a deal with the company to invest in US energy projects, according to documents released by Republicans from two Senate committees.

“Luft may be a bad dude. But, here’s why I want to talk to him. He worked for CEFC just like Hunter Biden and the federal government charge Luft with being an unregistered foreign agent, but they didn’t charge Hunter Biden with anything,” Comer told CNN.

“I want to know what exactly CEFC was and if he ever crossed paths with the president, the president’s son and what they did,” Comer added.

While his father was vice president, Hunter Biden allegedly made millions of dollars from business opportunities in Ukraine, China, Romania and elsewhere, according to House Republicans investigating the Biden family. But there’s no evidence Joe Biden abused his office to enrich his family.

Biden last month emphatically denied that he was involved or present when his son Hunter Biden is alleged to have texted a Chinese business partner in 2017, claiming that he was sitting with his father.

Asked whether he was involved in the business dealings or was sitting with Hunter when the message was sent, Biden previously told reporters, “No. I wasn’t.”

This story has been updated with additional information.

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CNN’s Annie Grayer and Alayna Treene contributed to this report.