DOJ says the scheme say thousands of dangerous drugs and toxins illegally shipped to China
Scheme ran from 2016 to 2023 fraudulently obtained biochemical samples
President of UF's Chinese Students and Scholars Association, Nongnong 'Leticia' Zheng,
…who is clearly efficient as well as beautiful, but claims to be terribly, terribly naive…
is implicated
The group openly protested a Florida law signed by Gov. Ron De Santis last year that limits universities from recruiting students and faculty from China — and bans employing such students from working in academic labs without special permission.
Zheng has confirmed 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. She said she has been assigned a federal public defender, Ryan Maguire of Tampa and noted how government agents have threatened to imprison or deport her.
It's not clear if the UF research employee or other students — identified in court records as co-conspirators — been charged or arrested yet. The UF employee worked in the stockroom of one of the university's research labs, prosecutors said.
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 cannot be 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 from 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.
Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications, identified 'Leticia' as Zheng using biographical clues in university records shared by none of the other 58,441 UF students enrolled last semester.
Zheng, who said she lived most of her life in China, said she was deceived and victimized by the scheme's organizers, who she said 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 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.
Zheng said she hopes to be allowed to finish her degree and said she doesn't understand how the university didn't have policies in place to protect her.
Former Republican Sen. Ben Sasse — a leading China hawk on Capitol Hill who once described the threat from Beijing as the 'defining national-security challenge of our age' — took over as the university's president in February 2022.
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,' said Eric Jing Du, a professor in the UF Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering.
Du said he worried investigations like this could lead to further crackdowns against international students.
…a crackdown which is clearly necessary.
The new Florida law targets students from so-called countries of concern: China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela and Syria.
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 August 2.
Yu provided Zheng, the UF student, with a credit card to place dozens of fraudulent orders last year, the Justice Department said. At Yu's direction, she wrote to the biomedical company that she was 'working in collaboration with other researchers' in biotechnology and requested 'a good price since we will be purchasing these items routinely,' court records showed. 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.
It wasn't clear who Yu was working for in China. In intercepted messages, the government said he referred to his superior only as his boss.
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, is set to be sentenced July 23. Muñoz sold products from the company to several universities in Florida, including UF, court records said.
Muñoz discovered in December 2022 that his employer was investigating him and warned Yu, who continued to place hundreds of new orders to ship to China in 2023, court records said. 'Wow, I am really screwed now,' Muñoz wrote. 'Anti-bribery, anti-kickback.'
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. He was expected to formally enter his plea June 18.
The Justice Department said orders placed through UF qualified for significant discounts — prosecutors said the scheme's organizers paid $4.9 million for $13.7 million worth of biomedical supplies — and included free items and free overnight shipping.
Prosecutors said in court records they would recommend leniency for Yu, Muñoz and Thyng because they promised to cooperate with investigators and accepted responsibility for their crimes. Prosecutors said all are American citizens. The Justice Department asked the judge to order Yu and Muñoz each to forfeit $100,000, which it said was how much Yu and Muñoz had earned over the years.
Are any of them naturalized citizens, and will they lose their citizenship?
The scheme unraveled when the company — known as MilliporeSigma, a subsidiary of Merck KGaA of Darmstadt, Germany — discovered the ruse involving UF and reported its involvement to the U.S. government. Under new Justice Department rules, such companies that self-report export violations and cooperate can escape prosecution.
The company said in a statement Friday that it fired Muñoz and cooperated with investigators to avoid prosecution. This was the first time those rules were applied, the government said.
#3
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
I'd bet they already had a better sample
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/29/2024 9:32 Comments ||
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#4
It’s almost like the student was sent to the US to do bad stuff.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
05/29/2024 11:29 Comments ||
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#1
It may be a sound tactic according to written law, but this is so stupid you have to wonder if Artificial Intelligence was involved in generating the legal brief.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] …their Mazda with children inside
Heather Allen and her family were ambushed at their home on Friday evening
Shirtless thug fired a warning shot then pulled her daughter out of the car
Allen threw her keys on the ground so they would take her car instead
The carjackers barely used the vehicle as it was found by police just 40 minutes later just two blocks from their house. It is being checked for fingerprints.
Jackson police Chief Joseph Wade said two suspects were identified, one of whose photo was released, but not yet arrested.
[FoxNews] Jared Ravizza, of Martha's Vineyard, charged in relation to stabbings in Braintree, Plymouth.
The suspect accused of stabbing four young women at an AMC movie theater in Braintree, Massachusetts and then two McDonald's employees at a rest stop in Plymouth over the weekend has pleaded not guilty to charges relating to the second incident, his attorney told Fox News Digital.
Jared Ravizza,
…whose long, wavy locks are bleached very blond…
26, of Chilmark – a town on the island of Martha's Vineyard – was arraigned in Plymouth District Court Tuesday on charges including assault with intent to murder and two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon in connection to the alleged rest stop attack.
His attorney told Fox News Digital "no comment" when asked if he had a statement on behalf of Ravizza.
The Braintree Police Department says the movie theater stabbing happened around 6 p.m. on Saturday, leaving four young females between the ages of 9 and 17 with "non-life-threatening injuries," before Ravizza allegedly carried out a second attack targeting McDonald’s employees at a rest stop along Route 3 in Plymouth about an hour later.
That attack, the Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office says, left a 21-year-old female and 28-year-old male injured.
"Investigators reviewed surveillance video from the McDonald’s restaurant that appears to show Ravizza allegedly reach through the drive-thru window and stab the male victim with a large knife," the office said. "Video then shows Ravizza leave the drive-thru in a black Porsche, park the car, go inside the McDonald’s, and stab the second female victim."
Ravizza then allegedly fled the scene before being taken into custody around 7:15 p.m. in Sandwich, a town on Cape Cod.
Prosecutors in Braintree intend to charge Ravizza with four counts each of assault to murder and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, according to a criminal complaint obtained by Fox News Digital.
Ravizza is also reportedly a suspect in a homicide investigation.
The Boston Globe reports that investigators are determining whether Ravizza was involved in a murder in Deep River, Connecticut.
When Fox News Digital reached out to the Connecticut State Police about Ravizza, the agency sent over information about a homicide that took place on May 25 – the same date as the Braintree and Plymouth stabbings.
"A deceased individual was found at this location," the report stated. "The identity of the decedent has not been confirmed and the investigation remains active and ongoing."
A website for Ravizza describes him as "an American serial entrepreneur and CEO of Ravizza Jones, an internationally renowned full-service digital marketing agency based between New York and Beverly Hills.
"He is also an American artist and skier," it adds. "Ravizza resides between Beverly Hills and Martha’s Vineyard."
based between New York and Beverly Hills. The type of coordinates given by an off-shore con call; someone not wanting to be located.
Over/Under on the 4 movie theater girls being attacked in the bathroom for saying something? I'll go with likely as that part of the story always seems to get talked around.
#2
Lightning gets more dangerous at higher elevations. You might not even see or hear the storm it's coming from, but you are the 'closest point' to source. On an open range with no trees, you are the lightning rod.
The area wherein this gentleman was killed is non-mountainous, but at an elevation around 7,500-8,500 feet (2,300-2,600 meters for our non-imperial friends), so fairly high up.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
05/29/2024 7:57 Comments ||
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#3
Pretty common story around here. Every year there is one of several cows being killed by lightning and around every 5-6 a human is killed with them.
[WKYC] 3News has confirmed a fire has broken out at the historic St. Theodosius Orthodox Cathedral in Cleveland's Tremont neighborhood.
The Association of Cleveland Fire Fighters IAFF Local 93 posted about the incident on X (formerly Twitter) Tuesday afternoon, stating that the blaze began around 4:30 p.m. Officials reported that the fire was near Starkweather Avenue and Professor Street, with the only church in that area being St. Theodosius.
3News cameras have since spotted smoke pouring from the 112-year-old building. At this time, authorities say there are no reports of injuries, but firefighters on scene requested backup battling the flames.
Part of the Russian Orthodox faith, St. Theodosius was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, the same year it was similarly designated a Cleveland landmark. It also gained fame for its role in the Oscar-winning film "The Deer Hunter," serving as the location for the wedding between John Savage and Rutanya Alda's characters.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
[Breitbart] A recent study from the University of Michigan has shed light on a critical challenge facing the global transition to electric vehicles: the inability of copper mining to keep pace with the growing demand.
Engineering & Technology reports that copper, a crucial component in electricity generation, distribution, and storage, is fundamental to the successful implementation of policies aimed at promoting the adoption of EVs. However, a recent study from the University of Michigan, titled “Copper mining and vehicle electrification,” has revealed that the current rate of copper production is insufficient to meet the projected demand for the metal in the coming years.
According to GlobalData, there are over 709 operational copper mines worldwide, with the Escondida mine in Chile being the largest, producing an estimated 882,100 tons of copper in 2023. Despite this seemingly huge output, the rapid pace of electrification globally is outstripping the mining industry’s ability to keep up. In fact, the authors state that, “We show in the paper that the amount of copper needed is essentially impossible for mining companies to produce.”
The Michigan study highlights the fact that an EV requires three to five times more copper than traditional gas or diesel cars, not to mention the additional copper needed for upgrades to the electricity grid. As Professor Adam Simon from the University of Michigan points out, “A normal Honda Accord needs about 40 pounds of copper. The same battery electric Honda Accord needs almost 200 pounds of copper.”
The researchers analyzed 120 years of global data on copper production, dating back to 1900, and modeled the likely copper production for the remainder of the century. They compared this with the projected copper requirements for the US electricity infrastructure and vehicle fleet to transition to renewable energy. The study concluded that renewable energy’s copper needs would exceed the current production capacity of copper mines.
Between now and 2050, the world will need to mine 115 percent more copper than has been mined in all of human history up until 2018, just to meet current copper needs without considering the green energy transition. To meet the copper demands of electrifying the global vehicle fleet, as many as six new large copper mines must be brought online annually over the next several decades, with about 40 percent of the production from these new mines being required for EV-related grid upgrades.
The study suggests that instead of fully electrifying the entire US fleet of vehicles, focusing on manufacturing hybrid vehicles might be a more feasible approach. Professor Simon notes, “We know, for example, that a Toyota Prius actually has a slightly better impact on climate than a Tesla. Instead of producing 20 million EVs in the US and, globally, 100 million battery EVs each year, would it be more feasible to focus on building 20 million hybrid vehicles?”
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/29/2024 6:51 Comments ||
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#3
So the penny will be the next 10 or 20 dollar bill awesome and that change shortage was a farce to get all the idiots to turn in their loose change awesome!
#8
^ Correct. But that's leftism in a nut shell (pun intended) - never let reality constrain your pie-in-the-sky grifting schemes.
And shout down anyone who points the real problems out.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/29/2024 9:47 Comments ||
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#9
Lots of what we used to call "predictive analysis" (PA) conducted here. I have often wondered if the Burg is actually an UNCLAS PA site in disguise.
#10
The same issue holds for “renewable” generation. Each windmill requires a lot of copper, not only in the device itself, but primarily in the conductor that connects the windmill with the grid. Their total electrification dream is a fantasy.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
05/29/2024 11:38 Comments ||
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#12
That moron Rogan asked Musk if there will ever be an EV that self charges with on board solar panels and Musk calmly said no, the sun delivers X watts per square meter and photovoltaic cells top out at some pathetic conversion percentage of that, so it is physically impossible.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/29/2024 11:48 Comments ||
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#14
The aging power grid is the bigger issue. Other than some localized upgrades, the vast majority of our nations electrical distribution and generating system is woefully undersized. There are slim alternative sources/routing in case of damage. In light of this, we're unable to accommodate the increased power demands of the numbers of chargers that will be required for for the pipe dream of so many EV's. For the foreseeable future, the proposed added number of solar bird burnersfarms or big spinning fans will be enough.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
05/29/2024 15:00 Comments ||
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#15
So the penny will be the next 10 or 20 dollar bill
Pennies are made of zinc with a very thin coating od copper.
#16
Once again, we see the divide between People of Words and People of Things.
In the Land of Words, you can change the world by making marks on paper and nothing is connected to anything else. Raise the minimum wage to $25/hour without affecting the rest of the economy. Declare that everyone will drive EVs by 2030. No need to worry about necessary infrastructure.
The People of Things know that every complex system is a network. An electrician knows that to get power at a wall outlet, you need a connection to the breaker panel. The breaker panel needs a connection to the power pole. The wires on the power pole lead to substation and on to the power plant. Take away any of those and there is no power at the wall outlet, no matter what the marks on paper say.
To build an EV charging station, you need wires to a power source. The power source needs fuel. Copper must be mined to make the wires. You need transmission lines, easements, and an excess of electricity over what is produced now. Let's not forget the environment impact statements and inevitable lawsuits.
If these buffoons were serious about electrification, they would be building new power plants left and right, and beefing up the electric grid. The fact that none of this is being done says it will never happen.
Every complex system is a network and arithmetic wins in the end.
#17
#9 Lots of what we used to call "predictive analysis" (PA) conducted here. I have often wondered if the Burg is actually an UNCLAS PA site in disguise.
Good question! In addition to WoT news, snark, and poetry, there is a lot of fascinating insight here at the 'Burg from people whose backgrounds I shall merely describe as "interesting". It makes for a nice antidote to mainstream media pablum.
[FoxNews] With nearly two-thirds of nurses in the United States experiencing burnout — including 69% of those under 25 years of age, according to the American Nurses Association — many in the industry are calling for change.
[FoxNews] A proposed Louisiana Senate bill allowing judges to sentence convicted child rapists to surgical castration may become law.
Reversible chemical castration through medication is already approved as a criminal punishment in the state, but earlier this month, the House of Representatives passed Democratic Sen. Regina Barrow's bill by a vote of 74 to 24, which would take the punishment a step further.
The law would allow judges to order the procedure for men or women who have committed an aggravated sexual offense against a child under 13, assuming that they are a viable candidate. The procedure would take place no less than one week after a convicted person finishes their prison sentence. If they don't show up or refuse, per the proposed bill, they could be sentenced to an additional three to five years behind bars.
"We have to stand and fight for the children," Democratic Rep. Delisha Boyd said when carrying the bill to the House, according to the Louisiana Illuminator.
Boyd cited reports of a 51-year-old Baton Rouge man recently arrested for the alleged rape of a 12-year-old girl. The man was already on the sex offender registry after a previous offense in 2007, suggesting that the proposed bill could thwart repeat sexual predators.
The House approved the bill on several conditions, most notably that offenders younger than 17 would be excluded from the harsh new punishment, the outlet reported. Provided that the Senate approves the changes, the bill will be sent to the governor's desk.
Louisiana's state Department of Corrections and Public Safety said the cost of castration per prospective inmate would be $550 to $680 per offender, but did not provide a total yearly cost for the shift, per the outlet.
The bill is expected to face a legal challenge over its constitutionality, with Democratic State Sen. Edmond Jordan claiming that defending the statute in court would cost the state at least $100,000, per the outlet, citing conversations with opposing organizations.
Jordan also objected to the bill's "historical context," arguing that it was reminiscent of unwarranted lynching and castrations of Black men in the Jim Crow era and that the punishment would inordinately be applied to Black men.
#2
I truthfully wonder. Did this fail because we can't do it anymore or because it was decided at some level that it would be allowed to fail. Or was it simply allowed to fail at the operational level.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/29/2024 8:18 Comments ||
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#3
Knee-jerk attempt to gain muzzie votes. Failure constantly follows these people.
#16
The piers have worked before but the sea state in this unprotected bay made this outcome inevitable. It is as if they held a brainstorming session absent of anyone who knew anything. It’s sort of a hallmark of OBiden problem solving.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
05/29/2024 11:26 Comments ||
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#17
This is what happens when idiot politicians say jump and politicized military officials slobber and ask "how high?"
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/29/2024 12:01 Comments ||
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Posted by: Frank G ||
05/29/2024 18:19 Comments ||
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#25
Bidet has done it again!
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
05/29/2024 18:45 Comments ||
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#26
Was joking with me local loafers about running a few million cans of pork-and-beans in at high tide in a breaker-bound hulk and letting the Pals Robinson Crusoe it. Little did I know it was, relatively, a flash of logistical genius. Gawd help us.
[SciTechDaily] New research conducted by Flinders University and global specialists is deepening our knowledge of vaccine-induced immune thrombocytopenia and thrombosis (VITT). During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, VITT was recognized as a new condition linked to adenovirus vector-based vaccines, particularly the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. Fortunately, we all understand the difference between mRNA and traditional - like Oxford-AstraZeneca - vaccines
Posted by: Grom the Reflective ||
05/29/2024 03:29 ||
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Link ||
[11128 views]
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Posted by: Super Hose ||
05/29/2024 11:30 Comments ||
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#5
p.s. Until it confirmed by a different, unconnected, research group the result (like all results in biomedical research) is worth sh*t.
I just posted it because the fact that all the reported cases of harm were due to "traditional" vaccines strikes my whimsy.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
