Orlando woman pleads guilty to being illegal agent of Chinese government

Last Updated: Saturday, June 11, 2016, 8:48 PM

ORLANDO -- An Orlando woman pleaded guilty on Friday to acting in the Unites States as an illegal agent of a foreign government, as part of a plea agreement with the Department of Justice.

According to the plea agreement, from 2002 to 2014, Amin Yu, 54, obtained parts and components for marine submersible vehicles from various companies across the United States. Yu then illegally exported the items to co-conspirators in China for the development of underwater vehicles, including remote controlled and unmanned submersibles.

Yu and her co-conspirators worked for Harbin Engineering University (HEU), a state-owned entity in the People's Republic of China, according to officials.

“Amin Yu made hundreds of thousands of dollars by acting covertly in Orlando on behalf of the Chinese government and by skirting U.S. export laws and regulations,” said U.S. Attorney A. Lee Bentley III of the
Middle District of Florida. “The enforcement of U.S. laws and regulations related to the national security of the United States remains a top priority for our office.”

This case was investigated by the FBI, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

Yu faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison for acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government and up to 20 years in prison for conspiring to commit money laundering.

A sentencing hearing is scheduled for Aug. 29, 2016.

Orlando woman pleads guilty to being illegal agent of Chinese ...