Chinese fraudster convicted for ripping off Americans with bogus COVID tests
A Chinese national wanted for IP theft in Canada 'unlawfully' entered the US, then proceeded to make a fortune ripping off Americans.
Jia Bei Zhu, the Chinese national linked both to the secret California biolab discovered in 2022 and the biolab discovered earlier this year in Las Vegas, is finally reaping the whirlwind for his crimes on American soil.
The Justice Department announced on Wednesday that a jury has convicted Zhu on one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, eight counts of substantive wire fraud, two counts of distributing adulterated and misbranded medical devices, and one count of making a false statement to the Food and Drug Administration.
'He flouted the lawful authority of the FDA and deliberately deceived the public.'
While he now faces the possibility of decades in prison, Zhu has evaded justice for at least a decade.
The British Columbia Supreme Court determined in 2016 that Zhu and several companies he controlled had conspired to steal confidential technology from a Colorado-based company, partly with the intention to sell said technology in China.
Facing over $270 million in damages and prison time, the IP-stealing fraudster fled Canada in 2015, then entered the United States — "unlawfully," according to the DOJ — where he continued to rip off Americans.
The jury in the Chinaman's latest trial was presented with evidence that, once stateside, Zhu founded a company in California with his romantic partner, Zhaoyan Wang, called Universal Meditech Inc.
With the help of employees hired through the Fresno County Economic Development Corporation who "would not ask any questions," Zhu, Wang, and others at UMI conspired from August 2020 through March 2023 to import faulty COVID tests from China — the origin of the disease — then sell those faulty tests to Americans based on numerous false representations, prosecutors claimed.
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They falsely claimed that the tests were authorized by the Food and Drug Administration, were made in the U.S., were made in connection with a certified medical lab, and worked.
Zhu managed to rake in nearly $4 million selling over 1 million malfunctioning COVID tests.
According to the DOJ, Wang was charged in connection with the scheme but evaded arrest by fleeing to China.
Zhu's scheme first came to light when one of his victims filed a civil lawsuit in 2022, prompting an inspection of UMI's Fresno facility — an inspection which the DOJ said not only demonstrated UMI's inability to properly manufacture COVID tests but proved the company to be nothing more than "an unsanitary warehouse that was far below established quality standards for facilities that house medical devices."
Once again, Zhu attempted to escape justice, moving UMI from Fresno to Reedley and changing its name to Prestige Biotech Inc.
When the FDA began investigating him, Zhu lied about his immigration status and identity, claiming to be Qiang "David" He. Zhu also said he knew nothing about UMI or PBI.
The discovery of Zhu's Reedley biolab in early 2023 ushered in the end of the Chinaman's years-long grift.
Months after a code enforcement officer noticed a hose sticking out of a supposedly vacant warehouse in the heart of Reedley — a clear violation of the municipality's building code — local officials executed a search warrant on March 16, 2023.
Inside, they found lab equipment, trace narcotics, roughly 1,000 mice that were genetically engineered to mimic the human immune system, and faulty medical devices subject to an FDA health embargo along with "blood, tissue, and other bodily fluid samples and serums; and thousands of vials of unlabeled fluids and suspected biological material," according to a congressional report.
Zhu was arrested on Oct. 19, 2023.
While in custody, police raided another one of the Chinese national's properties, this time a Las Vegas residence managed by an Israeli national currently in the U.S. on an E-2 visa. The FBI said more lab equipment was discovered at the scene, including a "bio-safety hood, a bio-safety sticker, a centrifuge, multiple refrigerators, red-brown unknown liquids in gallon-sized containers, and refrigerated vials with unknown liquids."
Eric Grant, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of California, said that the verdict in Zhu's case "holds the defendant accountable for actions that exploited a public health crisis for his own gain. He flouted the lawful authority of the FDA and deliberately deceived the public by repackaging low-quality, foreign-made test kits at a time when accuracy and reliability were critical."
Grant added, "This conduct, tied to the unlawful operations uncovered at the Reedley laboratory, put lives at risk."
The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party has confirmed that Zhu is a Chinese citizen associated with communist regime-linked companies as well as with Chinese military-civil fusion entities.
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