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Tribune News Service

A US federal grand jury handed down new charges on Thursday for the man accused of being behind the California lab that regulators said was illegally distributing misbranded Covid-19 test kits as the owners lied to investors.
Jia Bei Zhu, 62, previously faced three counts of lying to regulators and distributing misbranded medical devices, but the grand jury on Thursday returned a new 12-count superseding indictment.
The new charges filed in the Eastern District of California courtroom in Fresno County included conspiracy and wire fraud related to the lab discovered in late 2022, the US Department of Justice said in a news release.
Zhu is a citizen of China who lived in Clovis at the time of the lab’s discovery, according to prosecutors. His romantic and business partner, 38-year-old Zhaoyan Wang, was also named in the indictment.
Their lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two were linked to a limited partnership based in Oakland that owns the property in question in downtown Reedley, California, that was secretly used by Universal Meditech Inc. and Prestige Biotech Inc.

Conspiracy and Fraud Charges Added Against Operator of Central California Bio-Lab and His Partner in Connection with Sale of Millions of Dollars in COVID-19 Test Kits https://t.co/aB4kuMDBpe
— EDCAnews (@EDCAnews) August 15, 2024

The companies stored dozens of refrigerators filled with vials of blood, viruses and other infectious agents; containers of laboratory chemicals; hundreds of laboratory mice; and an array of other stored laboratory equipment.
The defendants were accused by prosecutors of defrauding buyers of Covid-19 test kits between August 2020 and March 2023.
They allegedly imported “hundreds of thousands” of 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, according to a news release.
Prosecutors said the pair told regulators the kits were pregnancy tests to get them into the US.
They represented to buyers they could make as many as 100,000 kits a week in the US approved by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, according to federal prosecutors. They avoided showing the buyers around the lab by claiming it was under construction.
Zhu remained in custody pending his trial, according to the Justice Department. Wang was not in custody.
Zhu faces maximum statutory penalties of 20 years in prison for the conspiracy and wire fraud charges, and an additional three years in prison for the distribution of adulterated and misbranded medical device charges, the news release said.
The next hearing was set for September 11.


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Chinese overseas

Jia Bei Zhu, owner of secret Chinese-run California lab, faces new US charges

Officials closed down this warehouse Reedley, California, after learning it was being used illegally by Universal Meditech Inc. for storage of hazardous materials. Photo: TNS

Jia Bei Zhu, Chinese owner of lab caught up in US bioweapons rumours, arrested for breaking health rules

Refrigeration units are seen being collected outside a warehouse that housed a now-shuttered medical lab in Reedley, California, in August. Photo: The Fresno Bee via AP

Medical items found by investigators filed with the Superior Court of California in Fresno County. Photo: Fresno County Department of Public Health

US panel on China urges closer look at American biosafety after ending probe into unlicensed lab

Code enforcement officer Jesalyn Harper walks past the garden hose that tipped her off to an illegal medical lab operating in Reedley, California, on Aug. 1. Photo: The Fresno Bee via AP

Refrigeration units sit outside a warehouse that housed a now-closed medical lab that officials say was operating illegally in Reedley, California, on Aug. 1. Photo: The Fresno Bee via AP

Mike Gallagher, Republican congressman of Wisconsin and chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, speaks in San Francisco on Saturday. Photo: Bloomberg

Unlicensed California lab housing pathogens tied to China firms, US House panel concludes after subpoena

Refrigeration units are seen in a warehouse containing an unlicensed laboratory in Reedley, Fresno county, California. Photo: Fresno County Department of Public Health

Republican congressman Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin speaks to reporters in the US Capitol in Washington in January. Photo: Reuters.

Refrigeration units found on the site. Photo: Fresno County Department of Public Health

Medical items found by investigators in the refrigerators. Photo: Fresno County Department of Public Health

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China

He and his partner Zhaoyan Wang were linked to a scheme to import Covid-19 test kits from China while pretending they were made in the US


He and his partner Zhaoyan Wang were linked to a scheme to import Covid-19 test kits from China while pretending they were made in the US.
