Head of US-based thinktank charged with acting as China agent

Gal Luft, director of a Washington-based organization is accused of recruiting and paying a former adviser to Donald Trump

The head of a US thinktank has been charged with acting as an unregistered agent of China, as well as seeking to broker the sale of weapons and Iranian oil, federal prosecutors in Manhattan said.

Gal Luft, a citizen of the United States and Israel, is accused of recruiting and paying a former high-ranking US government official on behalf of principals based in China in 2016, without registering as a foreign agent as required by law.