After a two-week trial in Sacramento, a jury on Wednesday found Reedley biolab operator Jia Bei Zhu guilty on 12 charges.

Jurors found Zhu guilty of all charges brought against him, including one count of wire fraud, eight counts of substantive wire fraud, two counts of distributing and misbranding medical devices, and a count of making a false statement to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

He faces up to 20 years in prison for the conspiracy charge and wire fraud charges, three years for the distribution and mislabeling charges, and five years for the false statement charges. He is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Dale Drozd on Aug. 24.

U.S. Attorney Eric Grant said Zhu used the COVID-19 crisis as a means to make money.

“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.”

Despite showing that Zhu had been importing test kits from China, federal investigators with the FBI, CDC, and FDA determined pathogens and toxins in the containers were part of his company’s test-making operations.

Court Case Leaves Questions Unanswered: Zieba

Reedley City Manager Nicole Zieba, whose code enforcement office uncovered Zhu’s operations, said the guilty verdict gave her cause to celebrate. However, she said there also are still lots of unanswered questions.

These questions include how Zhu was able to acquire deadly pathogens, what will happen with a home in Las Vegas storing deadly materials similar to those in Reedley, and how to protect the U.S. from potential outbreaks.

“The Vegas issue isn’t settled, the biologicals aren’t settled, there aren’t any charges yet against any of the hundred tons of deadly pathogens that we had here in Reedley,” Zieba said. “But overall, knowing that he is being held accountable for something and guilty on all counts just really is a satisfying feeling.”

Zhu Hired Employees ‘Who Would Not Ask Any Questions’

Before being uncovered in Reedley, Zhu’s companies, Universal Meditech Inc. and Prestige Biotech, operated in Fresno. The company hired “inexperienced employees who would not ask any questions” through programs with the Fresno County Economic Development Corporation, according to the release.

Prosecutors convinced jury members that Zhu, also known as Jesse Zhu and David He, imported test kits from his company Ai De in China and said they were approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration.

Though the companies sold small amounts of pregnancy and other testing kits, sales skyrocketed after August 2020 when they began selling COVID kits. Between August 2020 and March 2023, the company sold more than 1.4 million COVID-19 test kits, according to court documents.

The scheme first came to light in 2022 when UMI faced a civil lawsuit from a victim. An inspection found the Fresno warehouse “lacked the ability to manufacture COVID tests and that it was nothing more than an unsanitary warehouse.”

Inspectors found pathogens stored in juice, soda, and other containers.

After that, UMI left Fresno for Reedley, where Reedley code enforcement officer Jesalyn Harper discovered the operation.

While prosecutors called 27 witnesses and presented 220 exhibits, including former employees, medical experts, and customers, the defense called no witnesses.

Zhu Able to Acquire Driver’s License, Employee Authorization While a Fugitive

The court case does not answer questions about how Zhu was able to acquire the deadly pathogens found in Reedley, including malaria, HIV, and tuberculosis — all as a fugitive fleeing a $330 million judgment against him in Canada.

One freezer in Reedley had a note on it containing the word “ebola” on it, but federal and state agents destroyed many materials at the Reedley biolab without testing them.

A report from the U.S. Congress’ Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party said Zhu came to North America in hopes of building out China’s cattle and dairy industry. In Canada, courts found him guilty of intellectual property theft “on an epic scale,” resulting in one of the largest judgments in Canadian history, according to court records.

After fleeing Canada, he was able to get a driver’s license, an employment authorization card, and acquire the deadly diseases found in Reedley.

A bipartisan bill in the U.S. House of Representatives from Jim Costa, D-Fresno, David Valadao, R-Hanford, and Kevin Kiley, I-Rocklin, would make it harder to acquire deadly pathogens.