Assistant Attorney General John C. Demers and U.S. Attorney
Maria Chapa Lopez for the Middle District of Florida announces the return of an
indictment today of four individuals, including two Chinese nationals, an
active-duty United States Navy officer, and his wife, on charges relating to a
conspiracy to unlawfully smuggle military-style inflatable boats, with Evinrude
MFE military outboard motors, to the People’s Republic of China. The Navy officer and two other defendants
have also been charged with conspiring to violate firearms law, and the Navy
officer has been charged with an additional firearms-related offense and with
making false official statements.
The four defendants charged in the indictment are:
Fan Yang, 34, a naturalized citizen of the United States and
Lieutenant in the United States Navy residing in Jacksonville, Florida; Yang
Yang, 33, wife of Fan Yang, and a naturalized citizen of the United States
residing in Jacksonville, Florida; Ge Songtao, 49, a citizen and resident of
the People’s Republic of China; and Zheng Yan, 27, a citizen and resident of
the People’s Republic of China.
The defendants were arrested on Oct. 17, 2019, and are
currently detained.
All four defendants have been charged with conspiring to
submit false export information and to fraudulently attempt to export articles
from the United States. Additionally,
Yang Yang, Ge Songtao, and Zheng Yan have been charged with causing the
submission of false and misleading information into the U.S. Automated Export
System, and fraudulently attempting to export seven vessels and eight
engines. If convicted for conspiracy or
for the submission of false export information, the charged defendants each
face a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison. If convicted on the attempted-smuggling
charge, the defendants each face a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal
prison.
Fan Yang, Yang Yang, and Ge Songtao are charged with other
offenses as well. All three have been
charged with conspiring to violate laws prohibiting an alien admitted under a
nonimmigrant visa from possessing a firearm and prohibiting the transfer of a
firearm to a nonresident. Fan Yang has
also been charged with making a false statement to a firearms dealer, which carries
a maximum penalty of 10 years’ imprisonment, and with making false official
statements in his application for a security clearance, which carries a maximum
penalty of five years’ imprisonment.
An indictment is merely a formal charge that a defendant has
committed one or more violations of federal criminal law, and every defendant
is presumed innocent unless, and until, proven guilty.
This case was investigated by the FBI, the U.S. Naval
Criminal Investigative Service, the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of
Industry and Security; and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives. It will be prosecuted by
Assistant United States Attorney Michael Coolican and Heather Schmidt, Senior
Trial Attorney, Counterintelligence and Export Section, U.S. Department of
Justice.
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