US Navy officer & wife indicted for allegedly smuggling military hardware to China

US NAVY

Lt. Fan Yang, left, gives a tour of an aircraft to members of Royal Saudi Naval forces last year.

A US Navy officer and his wife conspired to smuggle military-style boats to China and sold a firearm to a Chinese national, allege federal prosecutors.

Lt. Fan Yang and his wife, Yang “Yuki” Yang, were arrested Friday (Nov. 1) following a joint FBI and NCIS raid on their home, said Amy Filjones, a spokeswoman for the U.S. District Court for Florida’s Middle District.

Besides the indictments announced against the Yang couple, indictments were also issued for two Chinese nationals. The four face charges of conspiring to unlawfully smuggle military-style inflatable boats, with military outboard motors tot he People's Republic of China.

“The illegal exportation of sensitive technology to prohibited entities poses a clear, significant threat to our national security," Rachel L. Rojas, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Jacksonville division, said in a statement Tuesday to Navy Times.

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 arrested on Oct. 17, 2019, and are currently detained. The quartet 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 US citizen residing in Jacksonville; Ge Songtao, 49, and and Zheng Yan, 27, both of whom are citizens of the People’s Republic of China.

Both Sontao and Yan held temporary visas allowing them to travel to the US for business and tourism.

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. 

Lt. Yang immigrated to the U.S. as a teenager in 1999 and enlisted in the Navy six years later, according to court documents and a military biography released to Navy Times.

A LinkedIn account appearing to belong to Lt. Yang indicates he rose to electrician’s mate second class during active and reserve duty while assigned to the guided-missile cruiser Cape St. George and Naval Reserve Cargo Afloat Rig Team 1′s Detachment A.

He earned an undergraduate degree in computer engineering at the State University of New York at Binghamton in 2011 and then a master’s degree in computer engineering from Syracuse University the following year.

He was commissioned in 2012.

Both Yangs have detention hearings scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.

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