FBI counterintelligence leak tied to James Biden, in Chinese oil conglomerate influence case run by suspect ‘close to Xi’

 

Justice Department inspector general report concludes FBI official Charles McGonigal leaked details of a CEFC investigation, tipping off operatives linked to Israeli-American Gal Luft and Xi Jinping

WASHINGTON — A senior FBI counterintelligence official leaked sensitive case information to an employee of CEFC, the Chinese state-linked oil conglomerate later tied to the Biden family in a Beijing influence probe, according to a stunning new inspector general’s report that also implicates Joe Biden’s brother and former Secret Service agents in the damaging leak.

The explosive new revelations add meaty details to what is already known from a series of indictments and filings that tie President Xi Jinping to central actors in a global espionage, money laundering, arms trafficking, and Chinese influence case involving the United Nations and targeting international elites, including Hunter and James Biden. The corrupt FBI agent’s disclosures gave Patrick Ho, a CEFC official and Harvard-trained ophthalmologist, considered to be a corrupt spymaster in Xi Jinping’s influence networks, a warning before his arrest in New York, and contributed to the loss of critical investigative opportunities against another CEFC operative involved in arms trafficking and the sale of Iranian oil to China—only identified as “Target 3.”

The Bureau has confirmed this key figure in the inspector general’s report is indicted Israeli-American Gal Luft — a Maryland resident who fled the United States after the leaks compromised the CEFC case, and was beyond the FBI’s reach for years.

The inspector general’s report, released Thursday, finds that Charles McGonigal, the FBI’s Special Agent in Charge for Counterintelligence in New York, cultivated undisclosed foreign ties while overseeing sensitive investigations. The report distinguishes between two key figures: “Person A,” an Albanian national with ties to the Albanian government who secretly paid McGonigal $225,000; and “Person B,” a former Albanian senior government official who worked for the “Chinese energy conglomerate” and was closely associated with CEFC’s chairman Ye Jianming, himself a close associate of Xi Jinping’s, according to Gal Luft’s indictment and related filings reviewed by The Bureau.

According to the new report and accounts first reported by the New York Times, Person B was Albanian former official Dorian Ducka, a CEFC consultant earning $50,000 a month who also helped arrange business introductions for McGonigal.

The FBI New York counterintelligence division regarded the CEFC case as one of its most important multi-year investigations. The targets were CEFC China Energy, its U.S. arm, and its executives Patrick Ho and others, who were suspected of using CEFC’s “special consultative status” at the United Nations to cultivate influence and bribe foreign officials.

Investigators uncovered evidence that Patrick Ho, a rotund former Hong Kong official with deep ties across eastern seaboard academic elites, funneled millions through New York banks to bribe officials in Chad and Uganda in exchange for CEFC business advantages. Another arm of the sprawling investigation into Ho connects with Chinese organized crime and Macau development tycoon Ng Lap Seng, and an alleged Chinese mafia figure involved in Australian government donations and influence schemes. Beyond the CEFC schemes at the center of this new report, the FBI and Southern District of New York also examined whether Ho and “Target 3” — identified by The Bureau as Gal Luft — had engaged in arms trafficking and sanctions violations, including selling Iranian oil to China, and trafficking Chinese weapons illegally.

McGonigal leaked this CEFC probe to Ducka, particularly by alerting him to pending FBI charges in June 2017. Ducka relayed the warning to Ho, disguising the source as “senior FBI officials.” Ho initially suspected CEFC chairman Ye Jianming was the real target and was somehow feeding false information, acting “jealous” and exaggerating to keep Ho abroad, and ostensibly away from Beijing’s prize targets—the Bidens. But Luft urged him to take the warning seriously. Weeks later, in July 2017, Ducka met CEFC Chairman Ye in France, and in August Ye told Ho and Luft in Hong Kong that U.S. authorities had warrants for four CEFC figures: Ho, two Chinese nationals, and “a Jewish person associated with CEFC.”

The report adds that around this time, Ye pressed Ducka about the identity of the Israeli under FBI scrutiny, asking whether he was Ho’s friend or some other Israeli that was close to Ye. Ducka later told investigators that he showed McGonigal a photo of Ye’s Israeli acquaintance; McGonigal’s lack of reaction convinced Ducka that the FBI’s target was the other man — Luft.

Shockingly, McGonigal then sought to confirm Luft’s identity inside the FBI. On August 21, 2017, the Monday after attending a party with Ducka, he sent an instant message to a subordinate, a Coordinating Supervisory Special Agent, writing: “What was the Israeli’s name as it is not in my report.” The agent responded with Luft’s name.

The inspector general concluded that CEFC Chairman Ye, a close associate of Xi Jinping according to related indictment filings on Gal Luft— and his warnings “played at least some role in Target 3’s decision not to return to the United States when expected in November 2017.” Luft had left the country on June 15, 2017, and never came back. FBI New York had prepared to seek a search warrant for his residence and devices if he did. “Because Target 3 did not return when expected, the FBI case team did not seek a search warrant for his residence or cell phone, as they planned to do, which presented a missed opportunity to gather evidence in a significant criminal investigation,” the report stated.

The inspector general notes Ho “debated whether to return to the United States in November 2017 after the Chairman’s warning.” He ultimately decided to come, reassured by faulty assurances from a deeply troubling source: in mid-November, James Biden, future president Joe Biden’s brother, personally emailed and phoned a retired Secret Service agent in Hong Kong seeking confirmation of whether Ho faced an arrest warrant.

According to the report, James Biden sent an email dated November 12, 2017, with the subject line, “Re new case I need ASAP—I’m in Hong Kong,” followed by the request: “Have info on an individual I need a background on one specific issue. Very timely. Please call.” The retired agent told the FBI that his own phone records confirmed several calls with Biden between November 12 and 14, 2017, discussing Ho’s situation.

In an October 2021 FBI interview, the retired agent recalled Biden saying “we have information from China that Ho may be arrested” and that Ho wanted to return to the United States but feared there was a warrant outstanding. The agent and a colleague ran database checks, found nothing, and cautioned that warrants could be sealed.

The report also revealed that Biden provided Ho’s biographical details, which the first retired agent passed on to a second retired Secret Service agent who ran a private investigations business. Text messages between the two retired agents on November 12, 2017, show the second agent writing at 11:02 a.m.: “Our client has a person who may have an active warrant out on him. He is a foreign born person. I’m going to get the info shortly. The client is very interested in this and anxious to know. I will send the info as soon as I get it. Our client is traveling overseas now.” At 12:13 p.m., he followed up with Ho’s personal details and noted: “Possibly 3 Chinese and 1 Israeli on the warrant.”

Ho was reassured by this news relayed from Biden. On November 18, 2017, he boarded his flight and was arrested upon arrival at JFK Airport.

The inspector general described McGonigal’s role as “extraordinary,” noting it nearly led to obstruction of justice charges. “Through his scheme, McGonigal intentionally damaged an important criminal case, violated the public trust, and compromised the integrity of the F.B.I.,” investigators wrote.

Ye Jianming, CEFC’s enigmatic chairman, was identified in other U.S. government proceedings as the financier who cultivated Hunter and James Biden. He gave Hunter Biden an expensive diamond ring, and internal communications from Hunter Biden’s infamous lost laptop suggested Joe Biden as the “big guy” referred to as a veiled beneficiary of shares for a prospective CEFC partnership negotiated by Hunter Biden.

A May 2017 email written by Biden family associate James Gilliar, found on Biden’s laptop, specifies a 10% cut for the “big guy.”

Another $5.1 million flowed directly to entities linked to Hunter and James Biden after Hunter wrote to a CEFC associate in July 2017 that he was “sitting here with my father” and expecting payment, the New York Post, which broke the Biden laptop story, reported.

According to Luft’s indictment, CEFC Chairman Ye had “very close relations with President Xi Jinping,” a claim Luft himself repeated in correspondence as he cultivated American figures. CEFC’s mission was to expand Beijing’s reach through the Belt and Road Initiative, weaving energy, infrastructure, and political influence into one. Ye also met with a former CIA Director, an unindicted figure anonymously referred to in the Luft indictment, but widely reported as James Woolsey, whom Luft and Patrick Ho attempted to groom for a role in the Trump administration. In private correspondence, Luft described Ye as “close to Xi” and able to deliver Beijing’s geopolitical strategy directly into Washington.

Luft was indicted in July 2023 on eight counts, including acting as an unregistered agent of China, arms trafficking, and lying to the FBI in a 2019 proffer meeting in Brussels. He was arrested in Cyprus but fled while on bail, resurfacing only to claim he was targeted for exposing Hunter Biden’s CEFC dealings. He was re-arrested in 2024 and, according to a Justice Department letter, is awaiting extradition to the United States.

Patrick Ho was convicted in December 2018 for bribing African officials through CEFC and sentenced to three years in prison. The inspector general’s report makes clear he had months of inside information before his arrest.

The Bureau has previously reported that CEFC was the successor to oil trading networks once controlled by Lai Changxing, the southern China smuggler and drug kingpin who built one of the world’s most powerful syndicates while cultivating Party elites. That lineage—Lai’s smuggling empire, Ho’s UN-linked bribery schemes, Luft’s arms brokering, and Ye’s Belt and Road diplomacy—strongly suggests CEFC as a hybrid intelligence and smuggling platform serving Beijing’s global ambitions, with leadership directly tied to President Xi, according to the Luft indictment filings and The Bureau’s assessments.

After establishing how McGonigal compromised the CEFC case, the inspector general also detailed his other corrupt dealings. McGonigal’s misconduct extended into Russia. In a separate indictment brought by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, he and a co-conspirator were charged with conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions and launder money by secretly working for Oleg Deripaska, a sanctioned Russian oligarch long associated with organized crime networks. Investigators found that while still a senior FBI officer, McGonigal cultivated Deripaska’s agent to position himself for post-retirement business. In August 2023, he pled guilty to conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and to commit money laundering. He was sentenced in December 2023 to 50 months in prison.

Sam Cooper

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