NEW YORK CITY, NY - On Friday, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York announced that charges have been filed against Xinjiang Jin (aka Julien Jin), 39, a former executive with video conferencing giant, Zoom.
Jin worked as Zoom's liaison between the silicon valley based company and the People’s Republic of China (PRC). He provided the communist government with specific information on meetings and even IP addresses, according to court documents.
A press release from the Department of Justice states:
As alleged in the complaint, between January 2019 to the present, Jin and others conspired to use (Zoom's) systems in the United States to censor the political and religious speech of individuals located in the United States and around the world at the direction and under the control of officials of the PRC government.
PRC authorities took advantage of information provided by Jin to retaliate against and intimidate participants residing in the PRC, or PRC-based family members of meeting participants. PRC authorities temporarily detained at least one person who planned to speak during a meeting. In another case, PRC authorities visited family members of a participant in the meetings and directed them to tell the participant to cease speaking out against the PRC government and rather to support socialism and the CCP.
Jin created fake Zoom accounts and spied on U.S. users, then terminating those users accounts, by falsley claiming they had violated Zoom's “terms of service” agreements by distributing child pornography or supporting Islamic State terrorist groups.
Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Demers stated:
No company with significant business interests in China is immune from the coercive power of the Chinese Community Party. The Chinese Communist Party will use those within its reach to sap the tree of liberty, stifling free speech in China, the United States and elsewhere about the Party’s repression of the Chinese people.
Jin has been charged with conspiracy to commit interstate harassment and unlawful conspiracy to transfer a means of identification. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in federal prison.
However, it is rather unlikely Jin will ever see the inside of a U.S. courtroom, as he currently resides in the Zhejiang Province of China.
