Queens businessman sentenced for harassing Chinese dissident

An Quanzhong, a businessman from Queens, has been sentenced to 13 months in prison. His crime involved harassing a U.S. resident whom the Chinese government wanted to send back to China. For over five years, Mr. An pressured this man to return to China, threatening him and his family with negative consequences. He was sentenced after pleading guilty last May to working as an unauthorized agent for a foreign country. In addition, Mr. An's daughter, An Guangyan, pleaded guilty to visa fraud conspiracy. She has not yet been sentenced. The court also ordered Mr. An to pay $5 million in penalties, including restitution to his victim and two others. The sentencing took place in Brooklyn federal court, where Mr. An, 58, attended with family and friends. He listened to the proceedings through a Mandarin interpreter. Judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto factored in Mr. An's difficult upbringing and his struggles while detained. She mentioned that his tough experiences in detention contributed to the lighter sentence.