Andover Man Charged in Malden Voter Fraud Case

A federal criminal complaint charges Yupeng Sun, 33, of Andover, with fraudulent voter registration and fraudulent voting in connection with an early ballot cast at Malden City Hall during the 2024 presidential election. Sun was arrested August 19 and made an initial appearance in federal court in Boston the same day. The charges carry a maximum sentence of five years in prison per count, and the complaint states Sun could face deportation after completing any sentence imposed.

The charges are allegations. Sun is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law. This account is drawn from the U.S. Attorney's Office press release and the sworn affidavit filed in support of the complaint, both linked below in full.

Just before 4 pm on August 20, Malden City Clerk Carol Ann Desiderio issued a statement on the matter. The Clerk's statement, along with an FAQ and a copy of the complaint and affidavit, are linked below.

What the affidavit alleges

• Jan. 2021 – May 2023 (with a gap from Aug. to Sept. 2021): Sun rents a room from a family, identified in the affidavit as J.L., Y.L., and their adult daughter Z.L., at a residence on Bartlett Street in Malden.
• May 27, 2023: Malden Police arrest Sun on assault-and-battery charges involving Z.L. A restraining order against Sun is issued May 30.
• April 8, 2024: Two forms are submitted to USCIS purporting to be signed by J.L. and Y.L., stating they wish to abandon their lawful permanent resident (LPR) status. The affidavit alleges Sun forged both signatures.
• June 3, 2024: J.L. and Y.L., returning from an international trip, are stopped at Logan Airport. Their green cards are confiscated and they are placed into removal proceedings.
• Sept. 10, 2024: The assault-and-battery charges against Sun are dismissed.
• Oct. 10, 2024: An online voter registration in J.L.'s name is submitted through the Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth's website. J.L. is an LPR, not a U.S. citizen, and is not eligible to register or vote.
• Oct. 31, 2024: An individual identifying himself as J.L. requests and casts an early ballot at Malden City Hall, signing J.L.'s name to the ballot envelope.
• Jan. 21, 2026: An immigration judge, after testimony from J.L. and Y.L. and a forensic handwriting analysis, finds their account credible and restores their LPR status, ruling the abandonment forms were forged.
• April – May 2026: Three anonymous tips, mailed and submitted online, tell Homeland Security Investigations and USCIS that J.L. "illegally voted" in 2024.
• June 30, 2026: Investigators interview J.L. and Z.L. J.L. denies registering or voting.
• July 23, 2026: Investigators interview Sun. According to the affidavit, Sun acknowledges registering J.L. to vote ("I tell you the truth, I register"), casting the ballot ("I used his name to vote"), forging the abandonment forms ("I signature"), and sending the anonymous tips ("I went to post office and, uh, to report the father vote").
• Aug. 18, 2026: A federal magistrate judge authorizes a criminal complaint against Sun.
• Aug. 19, 2026: Sun is arrested and charged. The U.S. Attorney's Office announces the case.

Malden's part in this

The extent of the City of Malden's role, as described in the affidavit, is that the fraudulent ballot was requested and cast at Malden City Hall during early voting — a location choice tied to J.L.'s registered address, not any conduct by the City. Nothing in the complaint or affidavit alleges wrongdoing by any Malden official or employee.

A separate, unrelated program: DOJ was already watching Malden's polls that year

One detail is worth stating precisely, because it's easy to blur into something it isn't: the U.S. Attorney's Office separately announced, ahead of the November 5, 2024 general election, that it would station federal monitors at polling locations in eight Massachusetts cities, including Malden — under the Voting Rights Act's language-minority provisions, which require Malden to provide election materials in Chinese and Taiwanese. That program is unrelated to this case, run under different legal authority, and concerned with language access, not fraud. It's also worth noting the fraudulent ballot in this case was cast October 31 — four days before that Election Day monitoring began, via early voting rather than at the polls monitors were watching.

How this is spreading

Within a day of the DOJ's announcement, this case had been picked up by outlets ranging from Fox News, Newsweek, and the Boston Herald to explicitly partisan sites, and internationally by the South China Morning Post. Some of that coverage has folded the case into broader arguments about voter-ID legislation and immigration enforcement — arguments about policy, not about what this complaint actually alleges. MNN takes no position on those debates. What follows here is what's in the two documents above, nothing more.

We'll continue following this case as it moves through federal court. Special thanks to Laura Ortiz, an MNN reader, who brought this case to our attention 8/19/26.