A Chinese entertainment magnate who pleaded guilty to making more than $10,000 in illegal political campaign donations to three candidates, agreed in federal court on Thursday to give up his green card and leave the United States.
周四，一名中国娱乐大亨在联邦法院同意放弃绿卡并离开美国。他承认向三名候选人提供了超过1万美元的非法政治竞选捐款。
Hui Qin, 55, had been in jail in Brooklyn since his arrest in October. One of the candidates was Mayor Eric Adams, according to two people familiar with the case, though none of the campaigns knew the donations were illegal, prosecutors said.
自去年10月被捕以来，现年55岁的覃辉一直被关在布鲁克林的监狱里。据两名知情人士透露，他捐款的对象其中一人是市长埃里克·亚当斯，不过检察官说，所有竞选团队都不知道这些捐款是非法的。
In March, Mr. Qin pleaded guilty to charges of making campaign contributions in the names of others, immigration fraud and producing false identification. On Thursday, he was sentenced to seven months in jail with credit for time served.
今年3月，覃辉承认了以他人名义提供竞选捐款、移民欺诈和伪造身份证件的指控。周四，他被判处7个月监禁，已服刑时间计入刑期。
In court on Long Island on Thursday, Mr. Qin wept as his lawyer, Henry Mazurek, told Judge Joan M. Azrack that his client was a “self-made businessman” in China whose chain of more than 3,000 movie theaters had been ruined by the coronavirus pandemic lockdown. His company collapsed, he was the target of lawsuits and his wife, Emma Liu, left him, Mr. Mazurek said.
周四，在长岛的法庭上，覃辉流下了眼泪，他的律师亨利·马祖雷克告诉法官琼·阿兹拉克，他的客户是中国一名“白手起家的商人”，他的3000多家连锁影院因新冠病毒大流行的封锁而毁于一旦。马祖雷克说，他的公司倒闭了，他被人起诉，他的妻子刘多离开了他。
Mr. Qin got involved in the straw donor scheme in an effort to reconcile with Ms. Liu, who was politically active, Mr. Mazurek said. He argued that his client had paid for his mistakes with his time in the notoriously harsh Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
马祖雷克说，覃辉参与稻草捐款计划是为了与刘多和解，因为刘多在政治上非常活跃。他辩称，他的当事人在布鲁克林臭名昭著的大都会拘留中心服刑，已经为自己的错误付出了代价。
Mr. Qin briefly addressed the judge through a Mandarin interpreter, apologizing for his actions through tears and saying he feared he would not be able to see his three children, who live in the United States.
覃辉通过中文翻译向法官做了简短的发言，他流着泪为自己的行为道歉，并说他担心自己无法见到住在美国的三个孩子。
Judge Azrack agreed with the prosecutors’ recommendation to release him with time served, and Mr. Qin was scheduled to be flown to an unspecified country just hours later. The question of which country remained under seal at his request, after he cited safety concerns. He had requested not to be sent to China, where he owes $450 million debt to three companies.
阿兹拉克法官同意检方的建议，在服刑期满后将其释放，覃辉被安排在几小时后飞往一个未指明的国家。在他提出安全考虑后，应他的要求，他去往哪个国家被保密。他曾要求不要被送往中国，他在中国欠了三家公司4.5亿美元的债务。
Federal prosecutors said in court papers that the campaigns had no knowledge of Mr. Qin’s straw donor scheme, carried out in 2021 and 2022, in which he asked others to contribute and agreed to reimburse them.
联邦检察官在法庭文件中说，相关竞选团队不知道覃辉在2021年和2022年实施的稻草捐款计划，在该计划中，覃辉要求其他人捐款，并同意事后将款项偿还他们。
The other two campaigns were identified by two people with knowledge of the case as those of Representative Andrew Garbarino of Long Island and Allan Fung, a former mayor of Cranston, R.I., who ran for Congress. They are both Republicans, while Mr. Adams is a Democrat. Neither immediately returned a call for comment.
据两名知情人士透露，另外两个候选人分别是长岛众议员安德鲁·加巴里诺和曾竞选国会议员的罗德岛州克兰斯顿前市长冯伟杰。他们都是共和党人，亚当斯是民主党人。两人都没有立即回复记者的置评电话。
Mr. Adams has acknowledged having met Mr. Qin during his 2021 campaign, but has said he had no involvement in the donation scheme. The news outlet The City reported that Mr. Qin’s former wife, Ms. Liu, was a member of Mr. Adams’s Asian Affairs Advisory Council. Ms. Liu, a former model, and Mr. Qin donated $4,000 under their own names to the mayor’s 2021 campaign. Reached by phone, Ms. Liu declined to comment.
亚当斯承认曾在2021年竞选期间见过覃辉，但表示自己与捐款计划无关。新闻媒体The City报道称，覃辉的前妻刘多是亚当斯的亚洲事务顾问委员会成员。曾是模特的刘多和覃辉以自己的名义为2021年的市长竞选捐款了4000美元。记者通过电话联系到了刘多，她拒绝置评。
The U.S. attorney for the Eastern District, Breon Peace, said in a statement that Mr. Qin had “learned a lesson in American civics the hard way, that no one is above the law.”
纽约东区联邦检察官布雷恩·皮斯在声明中说，覃辉“以惨痛的方式上了一堂美国公民学，明白了没有人可以凌驾于法律之上”。
埃里克·亚当斯市长承认曾在2021年竞选期间与覃辉见过面，但表示自己同捐款计划没有任何关系。Mr. Qin once helmed a business empire in China that included a Beijing nightclub and film and entertainment companies, and he was included on the Forbes list of billionaires in 2018. His lawyer said he was a philanthropist who had donated to schools in China and in the New York area, where his wife and children had lived since 2010. He obtained his green card in 2019.
覃辉曾在中国执掌一个商业帝国，其中包括北京的一家夜总会以及电影和娱乐公司，他在2018年被列入福布斯亿万富翁名单。他的律师说，他是一名慈善家，曾向中国和纽约地区的学校捐款。他的妻子和孩子自2010年以来一直住在纽约。他于2019年获得了绿卡。
But his fortunes turned soon after that. In court papers, his lawyers blamed the sudden demise of his businesses on China’s coronavirus pandemic lockdown and said that had led to a “hostile divorce.”
但在那之后不久，他的命运就发生了转变。在法庭文件中，他的律师将他的企业突然倒闭归咎于中国的新冠病毒大流行封锁，并表示这导致了“不愉快的离婚”。
In 2021, a Chinese arbitration panel ordered Mr. Qin to repay $450 million to his onetime business partners. A lawsuit to recoup the money is advancing in Manhattan federal court. In a decision late Wednesday, the judge in that case, Katherine Polk Failla, denied a bid by the plaintiffs to seize Mr. Qin’s passport to prevent him from leaving the country. The plaintiffs’ lawyers had argued that Mr. Qin would never be held accountable for his debt if he was allowed to leave the United States.
2021年，中国的一个仲裁庭命令覃辉向他曾经的商业伙伴偿还4.5亿美元。曼哈顿联邦法院正在审理一项追讨这笔债务的诉讼。在周三晚间的裁决中，该案法官凯瑟琳·波尔克·菲拉驳回了原告要求没收覃辉的护照以阻止他离开美国的请求。原告的律师辩称，如果覃辉被允许离开美国，他永远不会对自己的债务负责。
In a twist, Mr. Qin filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday, just before a hearing in the civil case. He had already been held in contempt for violating court orders in that case, including concealing significant assets.
出乎意料的是，覃辉在周三民事诉讼听证会之前申请破产。此前，他因在该案中违反法庭命令，包括隐瞒巨额资产，而被判藐视法庭。
In a filing, lawyers for the investors argued that Mr. Qin “will have been rewarded for his defiance by being released to a foreign country to live a life of luxury with the assets he kept concealed from this court.”
在一份文件中，投资者的律师称，覃辉的“藐视行为将得到奖励，他会获释前往另一个国家，用他向法庭隐瞒的资产过着奢侈的生活。”