May 11 (UPI) -- Eileen Wang, the mayor of Arcadia, Calif., has agreed to plead guilty to a charge of acting as an illegal agent for China, federal prosecutors announced Monday, the same day she resigned from office.
The 58-year-old is expected to formally plead guilty in the coming weeks to the charge of acting in the United States as an illegal agent, which is punishable by up to 10 years' imprisonment.
The Justice Department said in a release that Wang admits in her plea agreement to working with Yaoning "Mike" Sun, 65, to operate U.S. News Center, which purported to be a news source for the Chinese-American community, but was used to spread pro-People's Republic of China content.
Sun was sentenced to four years behind bars in February after pleading guilty to the same charge as Wang in October. Sun had served as Wang's campaign adviser. She was elected to the five-person Arcadia City Council in November 2022, and then was appointed the city's mayor.
"Individuals elected to public office in the United States should act only for the people of the United States that they represent," Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Eisenberg said in a statement.
