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.
FILE - Students walk past the Dodd Hall on the campus of Florida State University in Tallahassee, Fla., Friday April 30, 2015. 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.
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.
Zheng said in hindsight, she noticed red flags such as a lack of paperwork or consistent payments for the administrative work she did. She said she wasn’t familiar with the substances she was directed to order. The man described as the scheme’s ringleader — who has pleaded guilty in the case — reassured her, and she didn’t realize she was in trouble until the Justice Department contacted her, she said.
The scheme’s organizers also paid UF students other than Zheng to allow use of their UF email addresses to order the substances, prosecutors said. Organizers paid the UF research employee with Home Depot gift cards worth hundreds of dollars and paid for trips and loans, court records showed. Prosecutors said organizers also used the email addresses of two UF researchers who had already left the university by 2015. They were not described as co-conspirators.
The plot was sure to supercharge the raging policy debate over countering China’s ascension as a global power and curtailing its influence. 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 swaths of the state.
“It’s like some UF students are trying to make a profit on this without knowing the potential consequences,” he said. Du said he worried investigations like this could lead to further crackdowns against international students. The new Florida law targets students from so-called countries of concern: China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela and Syria.
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. The UF researcher in charge of the lab – which included the stockroom where the supplies were delivered – was not described as a co-conspirator in legal filings.Yu paid for the employee’s gasoline, $10 for every hour he drove to meet him.
A sales executive for Massachusetts-based Sigma-Aldrich Inc., which sold the samples, also has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Gregory Muñoz, 45, of Minneola, Florida, west of Orlando, was set to be sentenced July 23. Muñoz sold products from the company to several universities in Florida, including UF, court records said.
Last year, in February, Yu emailed Muñoz and asked, “Do you still need Leticia to send you this order?” Muñoz and his lawyer, Fritz J. Scheller of Orlando, also did not immediately return a phone message to Fresh Take Florida.
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