Jury convicts Chinese national of $4M COVID test fraud, lying to FDA

FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) — A federal jury has convicted a 64-year-old Chinese national of running a Fresno-based scheme that sold more than a million COVID-19 tests nationwide for nearly $4 million, despite the tests being faulty and falsely marketed as FDA-authorized.

Following a two-week trial, the jury found Jia Bei Zhu guilty of fraudulently selling the tests through his company, Universal Meditech Inc., and of lying to the FDA about his identity and role with the company, U.S. Attorney Eric Grant announced.

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“This verdict holds the defendant accountable for actions that exploited a public health crisis for his own gain. He flouted the lawful authority of the FDA and deliberately deceived the public by repackaging low-quality, foreign-made test kits at a time when accuracy and reliability were critical,” Grant said. “This conduct, tied to the unlawful operations uncovered at the Reedley laboratory, put lives at risk.”

Our office remains committed to prosecuting those who endanger the public through fraud, especially in matters affecting the health and safety of our communities.

Zhu was convicted on one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, eight counts of substantive wire fraud, two counts of distributing adulterated and misbranded medical devices, and one count of making a false statement to the FDA.

“The defendant’s scheme to distribute medical devices that were misbranded and falsely represented as FDA-approved undermined public health during a critical time,” said Robert Iwanicki, special agent in charge of the FDA Office of Criminal Investigations’ Los Angeles Field Office. “The FDA works closely with our law enforcement partners to investigate violations of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which is designed to ensure, among other things, that medical devices are safe and effective.”

We will continue to investigate and bring to justice those who threaten the health of consumers by evading FDA requirements.

Zhu’s romantic partner, Zhaoyan Wang, is also charged in the case. She fled the United States shortly before Zhu’s arrest and remains a fugitive from justice in China.

Several employees testified that Zhu instructed them to make false representations to customers. The employees said they knew what they were doing was wrong, but went through with it because they did not want to lose their jobs. They also testified that they feared Zhu would physically hurt them if they defied his orders.

Victims also testified that the tests they received from the company were missing basic parts and could not detect COVID.

The scheme was first discovered in 2022, after a victim filed a civil lawsuit against Universal Meditech and conducted a court-ordered inspection of the company’s Fresno facility.

The inspection found the company lacked the ability to manufacture COVID tests and described the site as an unsanitary warehouse below established quality standards for facilities that house medical devices.

Investigators found a vivarium that was not sealed off from the rest of the facility and multiple refrigerators with pathogens and toxins stored in juice, soda and other inappropriate containers.

A vivarium is supposed to be a dedicated space for housing and studying living animals in controlled environments.

The FDA, CDC and FBI later determined that the vivarium and refrigerators with pathogens and toxins in inappropriate containers were part of a failed effort by Universal Meditech to manufacture the COVID tests at its Fresno facility, and that they did not pose any risk to humans.

Prosecutors said Zhu tried to escape the civil lawsuit by moving the company from Fresno to Reedley and changing its name to Prestige Biotech Inc., but the tactic did not work and the FDA began investigating him. In May 2023, Zhu met with FDA and CDC investigators and falsely claimed to be a different person, Qiang “David” He, who had recently come to the United States from China on an asylum application, according to the evidence. He also falsely claimed he did not know anything about Universal Meditech or Prestige Biotech’s background.

Evidence at trial also showed Zhu had previously been an executive at a Canadian company, IND, in the early 2000s, and that the company had gotten into trouble with the Canadian equivalent of the FDA for similar misconduct. Prosecutors said Zhu later came to the United States unlawfully, founded Universal Meditech and began fraudulently selling COVID tests shortly thereafter.

The FBI and the FDA Office of Criminal Investigations conducted the investigation with assistance from Homeland Security Investigations. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Arelis Clemente and Joseph D. Barton are prosecuting the case.

Zhu is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Dale A. Drozd on Aug. 24, 2026. He faces maximum statutory penalties of 20 years in prison for the conspiracy charge and each wire fraud charge, three years in prison for each distribution of adulterated and misbranded medical device charge, and five years in prison for the false statement charge.