Report: Navy Lieutenant, Wife, Chinese Nationals Charged with Conspiring to Smuggle Boats, Motors to China

A Navy lieutenant in Jacksonville, Florida, his wife, and two employees of a Chinese technology company have been indicted on charges related to conspiring to smuggle military-style inflatable boats and motors to China, according to a recent report.

Navy Lt. Fan Yang, 34, and his wife Yang Yang, 33, were also charged with conspiring to help co-defendant Ge Songtao obtain and use a handgun during trips to the U.S., even though it would be illegal for a non-immigrant alien to do so.

The charges were reported by the Florida Times-Union earlier this week.

The two Chinese technology company employees are Songtao, 49, the chairman of the Shanghai Breeze Technology Co. in mainland China, and his subordinate Zheng Yan, 27. Both are Chinese citizens.

Yang, a Chinese-born U.S. citizen, was assigned to the Maritime Patrol Reconnaissance Weapons School at Naval Air Station Jacksonville with a top-secret security clearance and trained as a naval flight officer responsible for weapons and tactics aboard the P-8 antisubmarine aircraft, according to the report.

His wife is also a naturalized U.S. citizen who worked with Shanghai Breeze since 2016. Over time, the company had wired about $205,000 to a business incorporated by Yang Yang called BQ Tree LLC.

The scheme involved American companies that sold equipment to the Navy to export items to the company that could not otherwise be legally sent to China.

Yang Yang acted as a point of contact between an unnamed marine manufacturer in California and Shanghai Breeze, and Fan Yang advised her, according to the report.

Yang Yang, Ge, and Zheng were all accused of filing fake information to try to export seven vessels and eight engines that would have gone to Shanghai Breeze offices in China.

Fan Yang was also charged with making false statements when he renewed his security clearance in January, and making false statements to a gun dealer to get a gun that was intended for Ge, the report said.

 

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