Former employee of COVID testing tycoon ordered to stand trial for extortion

Sept. 7, 2024

A former employee of a Pasadena businessman whose company made billions of dollars selling COVID tests was ordered Friday to stand trial, along with two alleged accomplices, for attempting to extort $20 million from him by threatening to post sex tapes online.

Sunny Xiaolei Sun, 41, a former employee of Pasaca Capital, and Lihua Stearns, 58, and Xiadong She, 64, a Nevada couple, will each face trial on one count of extortion in the alleged plot against founder Charles Huang. They are not in custody, with the trial expected sometime next year.

Judge Rupa Goswami issued the ruling after a preliminary hearing in Pasadena Superior Court during which Huang testified over two days about his relationship with Sun, who was hired in April 2022 to be the chief of communications and public relations for his business, despite her background as a personal trainer.

Huang, 60, said Sun, who was living in New York, moved to Pasadena and was put up in a company condominium where the pair had “consensual” sex “five or six times” over the course of about six months — before their relationship broke down later in the year.

Huang testified that at an Arcadia Starbucks in January 2023 he met with Stearns, a friend of Sun, who said that the executive wanted $200 million in exchange for not posting the surreptitious videos she had made of them having sex.

Huang called the figure “laughable” because he didn’t have that kind of money, and he said the defendants eventually agreed that $20 million was a more reasonable amount. He said he made an initial payment of $600,000.

The businessman said he took the threats seriously because the public release of the videos could discourage potential business partners from working with him and destroy his marriage of more than 30 years. Court records show his wife filed for divorce this year but then dismissed the petition.

“I wanted to protect my reputation. As a businessman I have a reputation. As a private individual I have a reputation,” Huang, a native of Wuhan, China, said in the court hearing. “Once the video was exposed … my family could absolutely be ruined.”

After the alleged extortion started, Huang said, he hired an attorney and a private detective and began surreptitiously recording conversations with the defendants. He also informed sheriff’s deputies of what was happening, and Stearns was arrested May 2, 2023, at a park in Arcadia where she went to meet Huang.

Her husband was arrested the next day after he went looking for her at Huang’s house in Arcadia. Sun turned herself in after the charges were filed on May 4, 2023. Sun, Stearns and She have pleaded not guilty.

The case comes amid bitter civil litigation between Huang and his former partners at Innova Medical Group, a subsidiary of Pasaca Capital that grossed more than $5 billion selling COVID antigen tests to the British government during the pandemic.

Huang has accused two former partners of stealing $106 million in commissions, while he has been accused by former partners, executives and business associates of wasting funds on poor investments and an extravagant lifestyle, including hiring his girlfriends. He has denied the accusations, though he admitted on the witness stand to having had sex with another executive at his companies.

Sun’s attorney, Garo Madenlian, argued in court that no extortion actually took place, because his client was actually trying to “foolishly” negotiate a settlement after her attorney at the time sent letters to Huang in early 2023 accusing him of luring Sun to Pasadena under the pretense of a job.

Prosecutors never presented any video as evidence. Huang testified that Stearns showed him a very brief video clip on her iPhone of him taking his trousers off, but it was unclear from the testimony if the video had been surreptitiously recorded.

Attorney David Lopez, who represents Stearns and She, argued that Stearns was acting under the direction of Huang to help resolve Sun’s claims. Huang acknowledged that in communications with him Stearns referred to him as “boss” in Mandarin and that he had offered the woman shares in one of his companies if she could sell COVID tests to hotel and casino chains in Las Vegas.

“They were trying to help,” Lopez said. “They are literally working for Mr. Huang.”

To have defendants stand trial, prosecutors need only show probable cause that a crime was committed.

Goswami ruled that the threat to “expose a secret” — a key element of extortion — was met by the prosecution. “It could be damaging on multiple different levels,” she said of the purported tapes. The crime, a felony, is punishable by up to four years served in a county jail.

In April, an anonymous plaintiff filed a civil lawsuit against Huang, accusing him of sexual battery, sex trafficking and other wrongdoing.

Huang’s attorneys filed a cross-complaint this week, accusing the plaintiff, Stearns and She of extortion.

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掌握私密视频 华裔富豪遭勒索$2000万 三人被控罪

据LA Times 9月7日报道 加州帕萨迪纳一名华裔大亨的一名前雇员，周五（6日）被命令与两名涉嫌共犯一起站上审判台受审，罪名是试图通过威胁在网上公开这名华裔的性爱录像，向他勒索2,000万美元。这名华裔的公司通过出售新冠检测工具赚了数十亿美元。

三名嫌疑人为41岁的孙晓蕾（Sunny Xiaolei Sun，音译），她是Pasaca Capital的前雇员；58岁的李华·斯特恩斯（Lihua Stearns）和64岁的佘晓东（Xiadong She，音译），两人是内华达州的一对夫妇。

三人都将因涉嫌密谋针对Pasaca Capital的创始人黄春华（Charles Huang）而受到一项敲诈勒索指控。他们目前尚未被拘留，预计审判将于明年某个时候进行。

Rupa Goswami法官在帕萨迪纳高等法院的初步听证会后做出了这一裁决，在此期间，黄春华在两天内作证讲述了他与孙晓蕾的关系。

孙晓蕾于2022年4月被聘为该公司的通讯和公共关系主管，尽管她的工作背景是私人教练。

现年60岁的黄春华说，孙晓蕾此前住在纽约，后来搬到了帕萨迪纳，住在公司的公寓里，两人在大约6个月的时间里“自愿”发生了“5到6次”性行为，直到今年晚些时候他们的关系破裂。

黄春华作证说，他于2023年1月在亚凯迪亚的一家星巴克遇到了孙晓蕾的朋友李华，李华说，孙晓蕾想要2亿美元，作为交换，她将不发布偷拍的他们俩做爱的秘密视频。

黄春华称这个数字“可笑”，因为他没有那么多钱，他说被告最终同意接受2,000万美元，随后他支付了60万美元的首付款。

这位商人说，他认真对待这些威胁，因为公开发布这些视频可能会阻止潜在的商业伙伴与他合作，并破坏他30多年的婚姻。法庭记录显示，他的妻子今年曾申请离婚，但后来撤销了申请。

来自中国武汉的黄春华在法庭听证会上说：“我想保护自己的声誉，作为一个商人的声誉，以及作为一个人的声誉。一旦视频曝光……我的家庭绝对会被毁。”

黄春华说，勒索开始后，他聘请了一名律师和一名私人侦探，开始秘密地录下与被告的对话。他还把发生的事情告诉了警察，李华于2023年5月2日在亚凯迪亚的一个公园被捕，当时她去那里见黄春华。

第二天，李华的丈夫佘晓东在去黄春华位于亚凯迪亚的家找她时被捕。孙晓蕾则是在2023年5月4日被起诉后自首。孙晓蕾、李华和佘晓东都不认罪。

此案发生之际，黄春华与他在Innova Medical Group的前合伙人之间正在发生激烈的民事诉讼。Innova Medical Group是Pasaca Capital的子公司，在疫情期间向英国政府出售新冠抗原检测工具，赚了50多亿美元。

黄春华指控两名前合伙人窃取了1.06亿美元的佣金，而他的前合伙人、高管和商业伙伴指控他将资金浪费在糟糕的投资和奢侈的生活方式上，包括雇佣女友。黄春华否认了这些指控，但他在证人席上承认曾与公司另一名高管发生过性关系。

孙晓蕾的律师Garo Madenlian在法庭上辩称，实际上并没有发生敲诈勒索，因为他的客户实际上是在试图“愚蠢地”谈判和解，因为她的律师曾在2023年初写信给黄春华，指控他以工作为借口将孙晓蕾引诱到帕萨迪纳。

检察官从未提交过任何视频作为证据。黄春华作证说，李华在她的iPhone上给他看了一段他脱裤子的简短视频，但从证词中看不出来视频是否是秘密录制的。

代表李华和佘晓东的律师David Lopez辩称，李华是在黄春华的指示下行动的，目的是帮助解决孙晓蕾的索赔问题。

黄春华承认，在与他沟通时，李华用普通话称呼他为“老板”，并且黄春华曾承诺，如果她能向拉斯维加斯的酒店和赌场连锁店销售新冠检测试剂盒，就会给她一些公司的股份。

David说：“他们想帮忙，他们实际上是在为黄春华先生工作。”

为了让被告接受审判，检察官只需要证明犯罪的可能原因。

Rupa法官裁定，检方满足了敲诈勒索罪名的关键要素——“曝光秘密”的威胁。敲诈勒索是一项重罪，最高可在县监狱服刑四年。

今年4月，一名匿名原告对黄春华提起民事诉讼，指控他性侵犯、性交易和其他不当行为。

黄春华的律师本周提交了反诉，指控原告、李华和佘晓东敲诈勒索。