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The Chinese Communist Party funneled money into a US non-profit group to gain favor with tri-state local and federal law enforcement and private investigators, then used them to pressure Chinese dissidents in the US, The Post has learned.
The National Police Defense Foundation, set up in 1995 by retired federal agent Joseph Occhipinti to provide medical and legal support services to members of the law enforcement community, helped make introductions to a private security firm for a suspected Chinese intelligence agent in the US, according to public documents and media reports.
The NPDF, which boasts more than 200,000 retired and active law enforcement members, awarded high-ranking Chinese intelligence agent Liu Wei with its Distinguished Member Award in 2015 – a year after he donated $10,000 to the group, according to federal tax filings – and introduced him as the non-profit’s “delegate to China” on its website.
That same year, Chinese leader Xi Jinping set up Operation Fox Hunt, a Chinese security program to crack down on dissidents abroad, prompting the country’s spies to attempt getting their hooks into local law enforcement officials in the US to spy on Chinese nationals, according to the FBI and court papers.
Liu, the head of China Security and Protection Company Ltd (CSP) is an intelligence agent of the Chinese government, a source with knowledge told The Post. His company has close Communist links, working security at the 2022 Congress of the Chinese Communist Party and 2021’s celebration of the 100th anniversary of the party’s founding, according to reports.
Liu has worked with NPDF since 1999, according to information on the non-profit’s web site, which praised him for “pursuing common interests which include the fight against international crime syndicates, international terrorists, and the plight of victims of human trafficking gangs.”
Occhipinti, who has not been accused of any wrongdoing, told The Post he first met Liu in December 1999.
“It was at a time when there were positive relations between the United States and China,” he said in an email, adding that the NPDF held an “historic international police conference” in Beijing in 2005, inviting a delegation of retired law enforcement officers from the US who compared notes on drug and human trafficking and terrorism, among other issues.
The conference, he said, was approved by the State Department and received a Senate proclamation from late US Senator Arlen Spector.
He said his organization has been “transparent” over the years, notifying the FBI of their relationships with Chinese officials.
“Unfortunately, times have changed,” Occhipinti said, referring to current relations between the US and China.
In 2022, The Post first revealed the presence of a Chinese police station in Lower Manhattan being run by a shady charity that hosted a gala dinner for New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
Two US citizens were charged last year with setting up the police station above a noodle shop in Chinatown and helping security officials from China locate dissidents who were living in New York.
CSP also organized several trips to China for NPDF members, including Occhipinti, according to the charity’s website. Liu’s daughter also spent time at the Occhipinti home while she attended high school in the US, according to social media posts.
In 2015, the NPDF lobbied then New York State Senator Martin Golden to issue a proclamation honoring Liu as “a man of singular distinction” and praising him for “promoting positive police relations between the United States and China as the official NPDF Delegate to China.”
Golden, a Republican from Brooklyn and former police officer, was named NPDF’s “Man of the Year” at an NPDF gala dinner in 2009.
Occhipinti, who runs the foundation with his wife Angela, helped introduce Liu to US security officials, and by 2016, Liu went into business with Bo Dietl, the NYPD detective-turned-private investigator who also ran for New York mayor in 2017, The Post revealed last year.
“When Mr. Wei expressed interest in opening a US based security company, he was referred to an attorney and the FBI was notified,” Occhipinti said, adding that the deal was brokered through “a well-respected retired FBI special agent who owned a private security company.”
NPDF did not receive any monetary compensation for the deal, he said.
CSP announced on its Chinese-language website that it had acquired 50 percent of the equity of Beau Dietl & Associates in 2016. Both Dietl’s New York-based firm and Occhipinti were listed on CSP’s web site as the company’s US-based associates before The Post’s article appeared in June, 2023.
Occhipinti was described as a member of CSP’s “expert team” of advisors on the web site. A link to Dietl’s security company also appeared on the CSP’s website. All have since been removed.
Dietl told The Post last year that he had cut connections with the Chinese firm.
However, for years CSP has been listed as a corporate sponsor of NPDF gala dinners and events which often include high-ranking authorities, including members of the Secret Service, Homeland Security, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
Occhipinti, 74, is a former Immigration and Naturalization Service Supervising Special Agent. He was convicted on conspiracy to violate civil rights, among other charges, in 1991.
His sentence was commuted in 1993 by President George W. Bush, and former president Trump granted him a full pardon in December 2020.
In addition to his ties to Liu, Occhipinti also helped set up patrols with members of local Chinese communities in New York City, some of whom are members of China’s United Front – organizations which collect intelligence and promote the communist party overseas – according to Chinese media reports.
In 2021 the NPDF launched an Asian “community patrol” in NYC that consisted of active and retired military personnel and officers, the reports said.
Occhipinti worked with Su Junan, an Asian liaison to the NPDF, who is affiliated with at least one United Front group in New York. Su is a member of Lianjiang No. 2 Middle School Alumni Association where he is “chief advisor,” according to a Chinese-language press report.
Last year, Su attended the alumni association’s Chinese National Day gala and was photographed in a group shot of attendees along with assistant New York Police Department commissioner Gui’an Lin, who The Post first revealed has links to the CCP earlier this year.
Occhipinti also managed to enlist a Homeland Security agent to help train members of the New York Veterans Community Patrols with Su to combat Asian hate crimes in Flushing, according to Chinese media. Occhipinti told the China Press in 2021 “the foundation will provide professional training and guidance to the patrol group.”
Liu Wei and Su did not respond to The Post’s outreach for comment.
