A University of Florida Research Employee and Students Implicated in Multi-Million Dollar Biochemical Smuggling Scheme

A University of Florida research employee and several students have been implicated in an illegal, multi-million dollar scheme investigated by the Justice Department. This scheme involved the fraudulent acquisition of thousands of biochemical samples of dangerous drugs and toxins, which were delivered to a campus laboratory and then illicitly shipped to China over seven years, according to federal court records.

Among the students tied to the scheme was Nongnong “Leticia” Zheng, president of UF’s Chinese Students and Scholars Association. The group openly protested a Florida law signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis last year that limits universities from recruiting students and faculty from China and bans such students from working in academic labs without special permission.

Involvement and Implications

Zheng confirmed Friday in an interview that a federal prosecutor notified her last year in writing that she was the target of a grand jury investigation, and the Justice Department was preparing to seek criminal charges against her. She said she has been assigned a federal public defender, Ryan Maguire of Tampa. Government agents have threatened to imprison or deport her.

It wasn’t clear whether the UF research employee or other students — identified in court records as co-conspirators — have been charged or arrested yet. The UF employee worked in the stockroom of one of the university’s research labs, prosecutors said.

The materials smuggled to China included purified, non-contagious proteins of the cholera toxin and pertussis toxin, which causes whooping cough. Other materials smuggled included small amounts of highly purified drugs — known as analytical samples — of fentanyl, morphine, MDMA, cocaine, ketamine, codeine, methamphetamine, amphetamine, acetylmorphine, and methadone. Such samples are generally used for calibrating scientific or medical devices and cannot legally be exported to China.

Prosecutors described one student involved as a Chinese citizen majoring in marketing in the business college last year, who agreed to change her UF email signature to falsely represent that she was a biomedical engineering student to purchase items without raising suspicions. Zheng was identified using biographical clues in university records shared by none of the other 58,441 UF students enrolled last semester.

Zheng's Perspective

Zheng, a senior marketing major, said she lived most of her life in China. In a tearful interview, she claimed she was deceived and victimized by the scheme’s organizers, who solicited help finding paid interns from the Chinese student organization. Foreign students on educational visas are limited in how or whether they can work for pay.

“This case seems to be really big,” she said. “What I was doing was, like, just a little work, and I didn’t get paid that much.”

Zheng said in hindsight, she noticed red flags such as a lack of paperwork or consistent payments for the administrative work she did. She wasn’t familiar with the substances she was directed to order. The scheme’s ringleader, who has pleaded guilty in the case, reassured her. She didn’t realize she was in trouble until the Justice Department contacted her.

Zheng hopes to be allowed to finish her degree and doesn’t understand how the university didn’t have policies in place to protect her.

“I do need help, honestly,” she said, adding: “I would like to see if there’s anything that can help me not get charged and get out of this whole mess.”

Broader Implications

Earlier this year, Zheng’s organization issued a statement calling Florida’s new law restricting Chinese students in university labs “nationality-based discrimination” and said it violates principles of academic freedom and openness.

The scheme’s organizers also paid UF students other than Zheng to allow use of their UF email addresses to order the substances. They paid the UF research employee with Home Depot gift cards worth hundreds of dollars and funded trips and loans. Organizers also used the email addresses of two UF researchers who had already left the university by 2015.

The university said it has been cooperating with the Justice Department for weeks but declined to answer directly whether anyone has been fired or expelled from UF.

“We will have more details to share regarding UF’s administrative actions as the DOJ’s criminal case unfolds,” spokesman Steve Orlando said. “Employees who break the law will be separated from employment, and students who break the law will face suspension.”

The Scheme's Timeline and Key Figures

The scheme ran from July 2016 to May 2023. Former Republican Sen. Ben Sasse, a leading China hawk on Capitol Hill, took over as the university’s president in February 2022.

The plot is sure to fuel the policy debate over countering China’s ascension as a global power. Florida has already banned TikTok from universities and colleges and prohibited citizens of China and some other countries from owning homes or purchasing property in large parts of the state.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, has warned about foreign interference efforts by China targeting universities.

Eric Jing Du, the faculty adviser for the Chinese Students and Scholars Association and a professor in the UF Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering, said he was unaware of the criminal investigation and Zheng never told him she was ordering biomedical supplies.

“It’s like some UF students are trying to make a profit on this without knowing the potential consequences,” Du said. He worried investigations like this could lead to further crackdowns against international students.

Legal Proceedings and Sentences

Pen “Ben” Yu, 51, of Gibsonton, Florida, near Tampa, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and faces up to 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine when sentenced on Aug. 2. Yu provided Zheng with a credit card to place dozens of fraudulent orders last year.

After the biomedical orders arrived at UF, the research employee would bring them to Yu, who shipped them to China. The UF researcher in charge of the lab where the supplies were delivered was not described as a co-conspirator in legal filings.

Yu paid the employee’s gasoline and $10 for every hour he drove to meet him. Yu disguised the shipments to China as legal “diluting agents.”

“Faking an affiliation with an academic research lab to obtain controlled biochemical materials, and then sending those materials to China, is not only wrong but illegal,” said Matthew S. Axelrod, assistant secretary for export enforcement in the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security.

Yu referred to his superior only as his boss in intercepted messages. It wasn’t clear who Yu was working for in China.

Gregory Muñoz, 45, of Minneola, Florida, west of Orlando, a sales executive for Massachusetts-based Sigma-Aldrich Inc., also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Muñoz sold products to several universities in Florida, including UF, and was set to be sentenced July 23. Muñoz and Yu exchanged emails acknowledging the regulatory challenges of their orders.

Jonathan Rok Thyng, 47, who lived at the same address as Yu, agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit a federal crime and faces up to 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Prosecutors said Thyng ordered some of the biomedical substances and shipped packages to China. He was expected to formally enter his plea June 18.

Unraveling the Scheme

U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized a shipment in April 2023 that Thyng sent from Tampa to China containing biomedical items ordered by the UF marketing student and others. The scheme’s organizers paid $4.9 million for $13.7 million worth of biomedical supplies, benefiting from significant discounts, free items, and free overnight shipping.

Prosecutors will recommend leniency for Yu, Muñoz, and Thyng because they promised to cooperate with investigators and accepted responsibility. All are American citizens. The Justice Department asked the judge to order Yu and Muñoz each to forfeit $100,000, their estimated earnings over the years.

The scheme unraveled when MilliporeSigma, a subsidiary of Merck KGaA of Darmstadt, Germany, discovered the ruse involving UF and reported it to the U.S. government. Under new Justice Department rules, companies that self-report export violations and cooperate can escape prosecution.

“Because of MilliporeSigma’s timely disclosure and exceptional cooperation, a rogue company insider and his accomplice pled guilty to fraudulently diverting millions of dollars’ worth of biochemicals to China, and the company will not be prosecuted,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco in Washington.

“As national security and corporate crime increasingly intersect, companies that step up and own up under the department’s voluntary self-disclosure programs can help themselves and our nation,” she said.