A California jury found a Chinese national guilty on all counts on May 6 for selling more than 1 million faulty COVID-19 tests and obtaining nearly $4 million from customers across the United States.

The verdict concluded a years-long investigation into Jia Bei Zhu’s scheme, which involved lying to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and importing faulty COVID-19 tests from China, the Department of Justice (DOJ) stated, but his alleged involvement in a suspected biolab in Las Vegas has yet to be resolved.

U.S. Attorney Eric Grant said in a statement that Zhu, who has multiple aliases and pleaded not guilty to the charges, put American lives at risk.

“This verdict holds the defendant accountable for actions that exploited a public health crisis for his own gain,” Grant said. “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.”

Anthony Capozzi, Zhu’s attorney, did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.

Zhu’s conviction included one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of making a false statement to the FDA, two counts of distributing adulterated and misbranded medical devices, and eight counts of substantive wire fraud.

The 64-year-old’s romantic partner, Zhaoyan Wang, is also charged for her involvement, but she fled the United States to China with their infant child before Zhu’s arrest, according to the DOJ.

The Scheme

The pair sold fraudulent COVID-19 tests through a now-defunct, Fresno-based medical supply company called Universal Meditech.

In August 2023, the FDA issued a “Do Not Use” notice with an extensive list of supplies from the company.

“[Universal Meditech Inc.] has notified the FDA that it has stopped all operations and is no longer providing support for its tests,” the agency stated.

The FDA warned that the Chinese couple’s fraudulent company sold medical supplies to customers and at least 11 U.S. companies.

To carry out their scheme, Zhu and Wang hired inexperienced employees who “would not ask any questions,” the DOJ statement reads. Some of these workers were hired through a Fresno organization that paired unskilled workers to jobs and provided significant subsidies to employers that hired them.

Several of those employees testified during Zhu’s two-week trial, admitting that he instructed them to make false representations to customers and that they did so because they did not want to lose their jobs. The workers also said they were afraid that Zhu would physically punish them if they didn’t comply.

The Chinese nationals carried out the scam from August 2020 to March 2023, importing faulty COVID-19 tests from China, then lying to Americans to sell them, according to the DOJ.

The agency stated that there were four false representations given to U.S. consumers, including that the tests were authorized by the FDA, made in America, made in a certified medical lab, and actually worked.

“The defendant’s scheme to distribute medical devices that were misbranded and falsely represented as FDA-approved undermined public health during a critical time,” said Special Agent in Charge Robert Iwanicki of the FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations.

Victims who testified at trial explained that the tests they ordered from Universal Meditech were missing basic parts and could not detect COVID-19.

The Evidence

Zhu’s scheme was first revealed in mid-2022, when one of his victims filed a civil lawsuit against the medical company. A court-ordered inspection of the site revealed an unsanitary warehouse “far below established quality standards” for medical facilities.

“There was [a] vivarium that was not sealed off from the rest of the facility and multiple fridges with pathogens and toxins in juice, soda, and other inappropriate containers,” the DOJ stated.

A vivarium is supposed to be an enclosed, controlled environment for housing and studying living animals.

The inspection also uncovered hundreds of boxes of faulty COVID-19 tests from China.

According to the DOJ, Zhu attempted to evade that civil lawsuit by moving Universal Meditech from Fresno to a neighboring town and renaming it Prestige Biotech. The attempt failed.

FDA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention investigators met with Zhu in May 2023, when he identified himself as a different person named Qiang “David” He, claiming that he recently came to the United States from China on an asylum application. “David” also claimed that he did not know anything about either fraudulent company’s background.

On day eight of his trial, Zhu said he did not wish to testify.

The DOJ stated that Zhu participated in a similar scam in Canada before illegally entering the United States and restarting his scheme in California.

The Chinese national is scheduled for sentencing on Aug. 24, facing maximum penalties of 20 years in prison.

Links to Las Vegas

Hundreds of miles away from Universal Meditech, a tip from a house cleaner led to the discovery of a suspected illegal biolab earlier this year in a quiet Las Vegas neighborhood.

Federal and local authorities discovered more than 1,000 pieces of evidence there, including vials and containers of unknown substances and liquids.

Court filings obtained by The Epoch Times show Zhu as the primary suspect in the Las Vegas state investigation into the neighborhood biolab.

His romantic partner, Wang, and her mother are also suspects.

Jesalyn Harper, a code enforcement officer for the Reedley Fire Department in California, discovered a lab connected to Zhu in 2022. Reedley is about 30 miles southwest of Fresno, California.

“We’re appreciative that the Las Vegas lab is being taken seriously and showing that biosafety labs are a crisis in the United States,” she previously told The Epoch Times. “We’re hoping to be able to move forward and work together on addressing these labs.”

The Las Vegas investigation remains ongoing.

“Under President [Donald] Trump’s leadership, the FBI has made it a priority from day one to systematically dismantle Chinese Communist Party influence inside U.S. universities and institutions,” FBI Director Kash Patel previously told The Epoch Times.

“For years, the CCP’s covert presence in the United States grew while some leaders looked the other way. That is no longer the case. We’ve been given a clear mandate to root out these networks, protect American institutions, and save lives.”

Zhu and his companies have been saddled with legal battles around the world, from the United States to Canada to Hong Kong.