Taiwanese Man Gets Prison Time for Role in Illegal Export Scheme

Taiwan national Pen Yu was sentenced Aug. 2 to three years and eight months in prison for conspiring to commit wire fraud in a scheme to defraud a German biochemical company and divert biochemical products to China using "falsified export documents," DOJ announced. Yu was sentenced by a federal court in Florida, which also ordered the forfeiture of the proceeds of the scheme, which amounted to $100,000.

From 2016 to 2023, Yu ordered biochemical goods from MilliporeSigma, a subsidiary of German firm Merck KGaA. The defendant worked with co-conspirator Gregory Munoz, a former MilliporeSigma salesperson, to carry out the scheme. Both men, along with a third co-conspirator -- Jonathan Thyng -- pleaded guilty at different times over the last few months.

Yu falsely told MilliporeSigma that he was affiliated with a "biology research lab at a large Florida university." He then received over $4.9 million in discounts and other benefits as a result of this false affiliation. After the products arrived at the university's stockroom, an employee in the stockroom sent the goods to Yu instead, who "repackaged them and shipped them to China," DOJ said. Yu lied to U.S. authorities about the "value and contents of these shipments in export documents."

DOJ earlier this year declined to prosecute MilliporeSigma after the company self reported the violations and cooperated with the agency, the first time DOJ’s National Security Division has offered a corporate declination under its recently updated voluntary self-disclosure program (see 2405220037).