Jia Bei Zhu, the operator of the secret Reedley biolab, faces two more charges from federal prosecutors.
U.S. Attorney Phillip Talbert announced Thursday that Zhu, 62, is now also being charged with conspiracy and wire fraud.
The backstory: Zhu was already indicted on three counts last November by a federal grand jury over his involvement in the Reedley lab.
- He was charged with distributing adulterated and misbranded medical devices in violation of the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and for making false statements to the Food and Drug Administration.
- Zhu operated companies Universal Meditech Incorporated and Prestige Biotech Incorporated from January 2020 to March 2023, producing COVID-19 tests and pregnancy tests without approval from the FDA.
- Zhu had stored a number of biological materials in the Reedley warehouse, which was eventually discovered by city code enforcement because of an unauthorized garden hose.
- The warehouse contained nearly 1,000 genetically engineered mice and viral agents such as malaria and HIV.
The big picture: A federal grand jury returned a 12-count superseding indictment on Thursday, which added the conspiracy and wire fraud charges.
- The grand jury also charges Zhu’s romantic and business partner, Zhaoyan Wang, 38, of China.
- According to federal authorities, Wang operated Universal Meditech and Prestige Biotech alongside Zhu.
Go deeper: Court documents state that Zhu and Wang conspired to defraud buyers of COVID-19 test kits from August 2020 through March 2023.
- They imported hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 test kits from Ai De Ltd., a Chinese company that they owned.
- They falsely represented to buyers that the test kits were made in the United States and illegally imported them without approval. They declared the COVID-19 test kits as pregnancy test kits, which they already had approval to import.
- Zhu and Wang also told buyers that they could make up to 100,000 COVID-19 test kits per week in the U.S. and that the tests were made with other labs that were certified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
- They also told buyers that the test kits were approved by the FDA.
