Florida Woman Sentenced to Prison for Acting as an Illegal Agent of a Foreign Government and Conspiring to Commit Money Laundering

WASHINGTON – Amin Yu, 55, of Orlando, Florida, was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison for acting in the U.S. as an illegal agent of a foreign government without prior notification to the Attorney General and for conspiring to commit international money laundering.

Assistant Attorney General for National Security John P. Carlin and U.S. Attorney A. Lee Bentley, III for the Middle District of Florida made the announcement after Yu was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Roy B. Dalton, Jr.

According to the plea agreement, from at least 2002 to February 2014, at the direction of co-conspirators working for Harbin Engineering University (HEU, a PRC-controlled entity) in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Yu obtained systems and components for marine submersible vehicles from companies in the U.S. She then illegally exported those items to the PRC for use by her co-conspirators in the development of marine submersible vehicles including unmanned underwater vehicles, remotely operated vehicles and autonomous underwater vehicles for HEU and other state-controlled entities. Yu illegally exported items by failing to file Electronic Export Information (EEI), as required by U.S. law and by also filing false EEI. Yu completed and caused the completion of export-related documents in which she significantly undervalued the items that she had exported and provided false end user information for those items.

This case was investigated by the FBI, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, the IRS Criminal Investigation Division, and the NCIS. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel C. Irick of the Middle District of Florida and Trial Attorneys David C. Recker and Thea D. R. Kendler of the National Security Division, Counterintelligence and Export Control Section.