A federal jury has found a 64-year-old man from China guilty of distributing over a million counterfeit COVID-19 tests nationwide, originating from a biolab in Fresno during the pandemic.
The Department of Justice reported that Jia Bei Zhu was convicted for selling faulty tests valued at nearly $4 million through his Fresno-based enterprise, Universal Meditech Inc (UMI), to clients throughout the United States.
Zhu faced conviction on several charges, including making a false statement to the FDA, eight counts of wire fraud, and a conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Commenting on the case, US Attorney Eric Grant stated, “This verdict ensures that the defendant is held responsible for exploiting a public health emergency for personal profit.”
Grant further noted, “He disregarded the FDA’s authority and misled the public by distributing substandard, foreign-manufactured test kits during a period when accuracy was essential.”
From August 2020 to March 2023, Zhu, along with his partner Zhaoyan Wang and others at UMI, collaborated to import defective COVID-19 tests from China and sell them in the US under false pretenses.
The DOJ said that Zhu lied that the tests were approved by the FDA, that they were made in the USA, that they came from a certified lab, and that they actually worked.
It was revealed at trial that Zhu and Wang hired employees that wouldn’t ask questions.
Some of those employees testified that they knew what was going down but they were either too afraid of losing their job or too scared of Zhu to stop selling the fraudulent tests and blow the whistle.
Zhu’s scheme was first uncovered in mid-2022 after one of his victims “filed a civil lawsuit against UMI,” the DOJ said. That sparked an investigation of the Fresno lab where authorities discovered the unsanitary facility which lacked the proper medical equipment to make the tests. The inspection also showed “hundreds of boxes of COVID tests from China,” per the DOJ report.
In an attempt to escape his lawsuit, authorities said Zhu moved the operation to a clandestine lab in Reedley, 20 miles south of Fresno. The DOJ said he changed the name of the lab, his own name, and lied to authorities about his connection to UMI or the new lab. But authorities remained on the case.
City officials in Reedley then got involved in December 2022 after a code enforcement officer noticed a green garden hose protruding from a warehouse in the city, where they found an illegal biolab. Zhu was arrested in October 2023.
“This conduct, tied to the unlawful operations uncovered at the Reedley laboratory, put lives at risk,” the US attorney said. “Our office remains committed to prosecuting those who endanger the public through fraud, especially in matters affecting the health and safety of our communities.”
FBI Sacramento Special Agent in Charge Sid Patel added about the verdict, “Mr. Zhu saw a public health crisis and chose to profit from it by misrepresenting the origin, quality, and FDA approval status of his tests with the intent to flood the market with misbranded medical devices.”
Wang has also been charged in the case, but fled from the US before Zhu’s arrest and remains a fugitive from justice in China, per the DOJ.
Zhu could be locked up for a long time with the various charges against him. He faces not only statutory penalties of 20 years in prison for the conspiracy charge and each of the wire fraud charges, but five years in prison for the false statements charge, and an additional three years in prison for the fraudulent devices, per the DOJ.
Zhu is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 24.
