Overview
- Prosecutors charged Xu Bai and Fengfan Zhang with conspiracy to smuggle biological materials and charged Zhiyong Zhang with making false statements, according to a DOJ filing.
- All three were J-1 research scholars in the X. Z. Shawn Xu laboratory at the University of Michigan, which studies roundworms.
- Investigators say packages from China concealed petri dishes of Caenorhabditis elegans, including genetically modified samples, with one shipment hidden inside a book and mislabeled as documents.
- The case expands on earlier proceedings involving Chengxuan Han, who pleaded no contest to smuggling and false-statement charges, was sentenced to time served, and removed from the U.S.
- University officials ended the scholars’ appointments after they refused to join an internal inquiry, their visa records were revoked, and CBP and ICE detained them at JFK on Oct. 16; the lab director has not been charged and the probe continues.