Quanzhong An, of Roslyn Heights, sentenced to prison for acting as an illegal agent of the Chinese government

A Roslyn Heights man who is prominent within the Chinese American community was sentenced Wednesday to 20 months in federal prison for acting as an illegal agent of the Chinese government during a multiyear coerced repatriation campaign.

Quanzhong An, 58, who a government attorney said has a net worth of $44 million and owns a large hotel in the heart of Flushing's Chinatown, apologized for his conduct in a statement he read in Mandarin to the court.

"I didn't mean to cause them any pain," An said of the victims, as translated by a court interpreter. "I'm seeking your leniency. ... I will use my sentence for motivation to continued self-growth and to positively influence all those around me."

In addition to the 20 months in prison, U.S. District Judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto also sentenced An to 3  years of supervised probation. Matsumoto said he'll receive credit for the seven months he already spent in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn following his 2022 arrest.

"This conduct poses a serious threat to our national security," the judge said, in a sixth floor courtroom in the Brooklyn federal courthouse.

An, a resident of the United States, could face deportation, the judge said. The prosecution said Homeland Security Investigations has been made aware of An's guilty plea.

Matsumoto also ordered An to pay a financial penalty of approximately $5 million, including approximately $1.3 million in restitution to the victim and his family. The judge also imposed a $50,000 fine.

An's attorney Benjamin Brafman implored the judge to sentence An to time served and a period of home detention, citing his client's health issues, which were exacerbated when he was held at the MDC.

"I really think, judge, in terms of general deterrence, he didn't get a slap on the wrist ... he went through hell," Brafman told the judge.

Brafman also sought to minimize his client's conduct, saying he had only contacted the victim known as "John Doe #2" once. They only resumed contact, Brafman said, when the victim contacted An at the behest of the FBI. The victim wore a wire during their subsequent conversations.

Brafman said his client was "not acting as a sinister agent," but as someone "trying to help."

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander Solomon, who prosecuted the case, said An's stature as a prominent business owner made his victims "so fearful of him" and called the dealings "an extremely coercive situation."

"John Doe No. 2 was being very polite to someone superior to him," said Solomon, referring to An, who he said "had immense trust from the Chinese government."

Prosecutors asked for An to receive 5 five years in prison, while the probation department recommended he receive 36 months in prison, the judge said.

Prosecutors said that An, beginning in 2017, was a leading member of a campaign by the People's Republic of China to threaten and harass a U.S. resident and his family to return to China in exchange for economic benefits.

An first visited the resident's adult son's home in 2017, and then the next year, An sent his daughter and two Chinese government officials to the home, prosecutors said.

An then visited the son multiple times, during which he "served as a mouthpiece for the PRC by conveying threatening messages on behalf of the PRC government," prosecutors said.

The harassment included the filing of a lawsuit in New York Supreme Court against the victim, who along with his son suffered severe emotional and financial consequences, as a result, the judge said.

The Chinese government had named the victim as one of its "top 100 priority fugitives" as part of its "Operation Fox Hunt" to repatriate alleged criminals, the judge said.

The victim was accused by the Chinese government of embezzling 264,000 euros in public money for his personal use, the judge said. The victim faced a possible life sentence in China.

 An pleaded guilty to one count of acting as a foreign agent last May, but reaffirmed his guilty plea Wednesday with the addition of restitution and forfeiture to the plea agreement.

Prosecutors said that An also broke other laws, including committing bank fraud and money laundering by moving millions of dollars from China to U.S. financial institutions and deceiving the U.S. banks about where the money came from. 

An smiled outside court, but told a Newsday reporter he doesn't speak English in response to his reaction to his sentence.

 "Quanzhong An acted at the direction of the PRC government to harass and intimidate individuals living on U.S. soil as part of a pernicious scheme to force their repatriation to the PRC," U.S. Attorney John J. Durham said in a statement Wednesday. "Thanks to our collective efforts, the scheme failed, and the defendant has been brought to justice. Our Office remains steadfast in its efforts to protect both U.S. national security interests and individuals living in our District from transnational repression schemes perpetrated by hostile foreign powers." 

By Nicole Fuller

nicole.fuller@newsday.com@NicoleFuller

Nicole Fuller is Newsday's senior criminal justice reporter. She began working at Newsday in 2012 and previously covered local government.