Who is Charles Lee? Businessman linked to woman who breached Mar-a-Lago security has a chequered, mysterious past
- Lee, who has used multiple identities and faced accusations of business fraud, advertised an event that Zhang Yujing said she was at Trump’s resort to attend
- US Securities and Exchange Commission filings show that Lee had a business partnership with a Chinese lawmaker
Seventy-five US hundred-dollar bills, a device for detecting secret surveillance equipment and five SIM cards: the mystery surrounding Mar-a-Lago intruder Zhang Yujing deepened on Monday after US prosecutors in Florida laid out the inventory of items found in the Chinese woman’s possession.
Yet an equally puzzling and, according to national security analysts, potentially troubling picture is beginning to emerge about the man who advertised the event that Zhang said she was at US President Donald Trump’s resort to attend: Charles Lee.
That picture includes multiple identities, a professional partnership with a Chinese lawmaker, allegations of business fraud and a host of dormant companies based in the US tax haven of Delaware.
Over the past two decades, Lee – who advertises access to prominent political figures around the world to Chinese clients – has used at least four names to do business, an analysis of Chinese court documents, US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings and previous Chinese media investigations reveals.
In 2011, under the name Li Weitian, which is believed to be his legal name, Lee registered the United Nations Chinese Friendship Association (UNCFA) in Delaware, a state that attracts corporations from across the US and the world – some legitimate, some suspect – because of its business-friendly tax laws.
It was a “United Nations Friendship Event” that Zhang told staff at Mar-a-Lago she was there to attend on March 30, at the invitation of a Chinese man called “Charles”, according to a criminal complaint.
