Who Is Gal Luft? Hunter Biden Informant Charged With Acting as China Agent

Gal Luft, a 57-year-old Israeli-American think tank chief who claimed to have evidence tying Hunter Biden to corrupt business practices in China, has been charged by federal prosecutors in Manhattan with acting as a Chinese agent.

In the charges, which were unsealed on Monday, prosecutors claim Luft failed to register as a foreign agent in 2016 while promoting Chinese interests in the United States, as is required, and went on to lobby an adviser to then President Donald Trump urging him to "publicly support certain policies with respect to China."

Newsweek has approached Luft for comment by email.

Luft is accused of attempting to organize arms sales to China, Libya, Kenya and the United Arab Emirates without the necessary permits, and seeking to circumvent American sanctions on the sale of Iranian oil. In February Luft was arrested in Cyprus over these claims, but he skipped bail and went on the run. His current location is unknown.

Luft said he was arrested before he was due to address the Republican-controlled House Oversight Committee, which is currently investigating the Biden family's business practices. He claimed members of the family received money from figures affiliated with Chinese military intelligence and China's state-controlled energy company CEFC, in exchange for political favors.

President Joe Biden has consistently denied any wrongdoing and said in June that a New York Post reporter who raised the allegations was asking a "dumb question."

Early Career

New York court documents claim Luft was born in Israel, becoming a U.S. dual national "in or about 2004." Luft served in the Israeli army, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel, before setting up a U.S.-based think tank called the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security. According to his profile on the IAGS website, Luft focuses on "energy, security, and economic trends," and has a doctorate in strategic studies from Johns Hopkins University.

Luft has written a number of books on geopolitical issues including De-dollarization: The Revolt Against the Dollar and the Rise of a New Financial World Order, which was published in 2019, and Silk Road 2.0: US Strategy Toward China's Belt and Road Initiative, which came out in 2017.

Biden Accusations

In a 14-minute video, acquired by the New York Post earlier this month, Luft claimed to be the "patient zero of the Biden family investigation."

He said: "I, who volunteered to inform the U.S. government about a potential security breach and about compromising information about a man vying to be the next president, am now being hunted by the very same people who I informed—and may have to live on the run for the rest of my life on the run.

"I'm not a Republican. I'm not a Democrat. I have no political motive or agenda… I did it out of deep concern that if the Bidens were to come to power, the country would be facing the same traumatic Russia collusion scandal, only this time with China."

In the legal papers released on Monday, prosecutors accused Luft of being "engaged in multiple international criminal schemes, including a scheme to act within the United States to advance the interests of the People's Republic of China as agents of China-based principals, without registering as foreign agents as required under U.S. law."

Luft was originally indicted on these charges in 2022, before his arrest in Cyprus earlier this year and bail jumping.

After the charges were made public, on Monday, a Twitter account purportedly belonging to Luft posted a link to a fundraiser for legal support, commenting: "#StandWithGal to fight this injustice. (tweeted by Team Gal)."

The fundraiser states: "In March 2019, Dr. Gal Luft provided the FBI and US Department of Justice explosive information about corruption at the highest levels of the U.S. government involving the Biden family. The meeting with the DOJ occurred nearly one month before Joe Biden announced he was running for president and nine months before Delaware computer repair shop owner John Paul Mac Isaac turned over Hunter Biden's laptop to the FBI.

"Instead of pursuing the allegations, the DOJ decided to 'shoot the messenger' and began a prosecution of Gal who is a whistleblower, as a matter of fact and law."

On July 7, Republican Rep. James Comer described Luft as "a very credible witness on Biden family corruption" during an appearance on the conservative Newsmax network.

President Biden has previously described the corruption accusations against him as a "smear campaign."

In June, it was announced that Hunter Biden had reached a deal with prosecutors that will see him avoid jail by pleading guilty to two tax misdemeanors, in an unrelated case.

Correction 07/12/23, 5:15 a.m. ET: This story has been updated to clarify Luft was not charged on Monday, as originally stated, but rather the charges were unsealed on Monday, July 10. The original indictment was issued in 2022.