Tim Cheung (@TimCheung)

"A #University of #Florida research employee and students have been implicated in an illegal, multi-million dollar scheme investigated by the Justice Department to fraudulently buy thousands of biochemical samples of dangerous drugs and toxins that were delivered to a campus laboratory then illicitly shipped to #China over seven years, according to federal court records. Among the #students tied to the scheme was the 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...That student, Nongnong 'Leticia' Zheng, confirmed Friday in an interview that a federal prosecutor notified her last year in writing she was the target of a grand jury investigation, and the Justice Department was preparing to seek criminal charges against her...The UF employee worked in the stockroom of one of the university’s research labs, prosecutors said. The materials smuggled to China included what the government described as purified, non-contagious proteins of the cholera toxin and pertussis toxin, which causes whooping cough...Other materials smuggled to China in the scheme included small amounts of highly purified drugs – known as analytical samples — of #fentanyl, #morphine, #MDMA, #cocaine, #ketamine, #codeine, #methamphetamine, #amphetamine, #acetylmorphine and #methadone, court records showed. Such small samples would generally be used for calibrating scientific or medical devices. The substances can’t 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, court records showed. One line across hundreds of pages of court documents in the case cited an excerpt of an email that her first name was 'Leticia'. Zheng, a senior marketing major in the business school, is president of the Chinese students and scholars group, which describes itself as officially approved by the Chinese embassy. Zheng was enrolled as recently as the spring semester that just ended, university records showed...The man who prosecutors identified as the scheme’s ringleader, Pen 'Ben' Yu, 51, of #Gibsonton, Florida, near Tampa, has already pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and faces up to 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine when he is sentenced on Aug. 2. Yu provided Zheng, the UF student, with a credit card to place dozens of fraudulent orders last year, the Justice Department said...After the biomedical orders arrived at UF, the research employee would bring them or otherwise provide them to Yu, who shipped them to China, prosecutors said...A third person, Jonathan Rok Thyng, 47, who lived at the same address as Yu in Gibsonton, 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 some of the packages to China...#US. 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." https://www.facebook.com/ChinaCreepingAuthoritarianism/posts/pfbid0xXtVe3uEMCo4LSZDr1S1q6LSw6iv9sEqpKgHioARxGNrjDaWsk8uaiyiqJvFUsZzl