United States v. Gregory Muñoz, et al.

From 2016–2023, Pen Yu ordered biochemical products from MilliporeSigma, a subsidiary of multinational science and technology company Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, with help from Gregory Muñoz, a MilliporeSigma salesperson, by falsely representing that Yu was affiliated with a biology research lab at a large Florida university. This fictitious affiliation led MilliporeSigma to provide Yu over $4.9 million worth of discounts and other benefits, such as free overnight shipping, not available to the public. Yu gave Muñoz thousands of dollars in gift cards for facilitating these fraudulent discounted orders. When the products arrived at the university stockroom, a stockroom employee diverted the products to Yu, who repackaged them and shipped them to China. To avoid scrutiny, Yu made false statements about the value and contents of these shipments in export documents.

On May 22, 2024, the Justice Department announced that, because of MilliporeSigma’s timely self-disclosure and extraordinary cooperation, MilliporeSigma would not be charged, despite the criminal wrongdoing committed by Muñoz, a MilliporeSigma employee. On August 2, 2024, Yu was sentenced to a term of 44 months’ imprisonment for conspiracy to commit wire fraud.