On Thursday the US Attorney for the Eastern District of California announced that a 12-count superseding indictment had been filed against Jia Bei Zhu, the Chinese man who operated an illegal biolab – linked to the Chinese Communist Party – in Reedley, California.
Zhu, also known as David He, was already charged with distributing adulterated and misbranded COVID-19 test kits in violation of the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and making false statements to authorities about his identity and involvement with the biolabs.
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The latest charges are for conspiracy and wire fraud. Zhu has been in custody pending trial since October, 2023, having been found to be an extreme flight risk.
The U.S. Attorney’s office reports that the indictment also charges Zhaoyan Wang, who was listed as an officer of many of the corporations linked to the biolab:
The superseding indictment also charges Zhu’s romantic and business partner, Zhaoyan Wang, 38, a citizen of China, who operated the biolabs Universal Meditech Inc. (UMI) and Prestige Biotech Inc. (PBI) in Fresno and Reedley along with Zhu. UMI and PBI distributed COVID-19, pregnancy, and other types of test kits.
Here’s the scheme, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office:
According to court documents, from August 2020 through March 2023, Zhu and Wang conspired to defraud buyers of UMI and PBI’s COVID-19 test kits. They imported hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 test kits from Ai De Ltd., which was a company in China that they controlled, and falsely represented to the buyers that the test kits were made in the United States. They illegally imported the COVID-19 test kits, which they were not approved to import, by falsely declaring them as pregnancy test kits, which they were approved to import.
Zhu and Wang also falsely represented to the buyers that UMI and PBI could make up to 100,000 COVID-19 test kits per week in the United States and that the test kits were made in connection with other labs that were certified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Finally, they falsely represented to the buyers that the test kits were approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Zhu and Wang made over $1.7 million through their fraud.
Wang is not in custody, and it’s not clear whether she’s in the United States or not.
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Zhu has filed suit against the City of Reedley, Fresno County, and the U.S. government, claiming he suffered more than $50 million in damages when his laboratory mice were euthanized and blaming his treatment on “xenophobia.
