Ex-NYPD officer sentenced to 18 months after conviction for helping China stalk an expat

A former New York police sergeant was sentenced Wednesday to 18 months in prison in a U.S. case about China’s pursuit of critics abroad, a sentence that came after two members of Congress urged the judge to spare him from time behind bars.

NEW YORK — A former New York police sergeant was sentenced Wednesday to 18 months in prison in a U.S. case about China’s pursuit of critics abroad, a sentence that came after two members of Congress urged the judge to spare him from time behind bars.

Michael McMahon was convicted in 2023 of contributing to a transcontinental pressure campaign aimed at getting a former Chinese city official to leave the U.S. and return to his homeland. The tactics ranged from Facebook messages to a threatening real-world note on the man’s New Jersey door.

During an hourslong sentencing, McMahon said he was “unwittingly used” by Chinese operatives when he took what he thought was a routine private investigation job in 2016.

“I never thought for one minute I was working for China, stalking anyone. Yet now I’ve lost everything,” McMahon said. “This is such a nightmare.”

He was among 10 people charged in the federal case, which spurred the first trial stemming from U.S. claims about China’s decade-old “Operation Fox Hunt” initiative. Beijing says it’s about bringing corrupt officials and other criminal fugitives to justice; Washington deems it an exercise in threatening and harassing dissidents across borders.