Federal judge revokes US citizenship of Chinese couple convicted of stealing medical trade secrets for China

A Chinese married couple convicted of trying to steal cutting-edge research from an Ohio children's hospital to share with China will have their U.S. citizenship revoked, the Justice Department (DOJ) said Tuesday. 

U.S. Judge James E. Simmons Jr., ordered that Li Chen and Yu Zhou be stripped of their naturalized U.S. citizenship, citing their convictions for wire fraud and conspiracy to commit theft of trade secrets, which involved "moral turpitude" that prevented them from having the good moral character necessary to naturalize, federal prosecutors said. 

"Gaining citizenship after committing serious crimes against the American people is an unacceptable abuse of our immigration system," Attorney General Pam Bondi said. 

"These latest denaturalizations illustrate this Department of Justice's focus on ensuring that citizenship remains a privilege to obtain, not a right to abuse."

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Chen and Zhou worked for Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus in separate research labs for a decade, and founded a biotech company in China established using stolen trade secrets, authorities said.  

The pair received funding from China's State Administration of Foreign Expert Affairs, authorities said. 

The proprietary information helped the pair develop kits for identifying and treating different medical conditions, the DOJ said. Chen also received support from the Chinese government in setting up the business.

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Zhou entered the United States in 2005 as an exchange visitor. Zhou arrived in the U.S. again in 2008, on a specialty occupation visa sponsored by NCH, and he adjusted his immigration status to permanent resident in 2011, as the derivative spouse of Chen. 

Chen became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2016, and Zhou naturalized in 2017. Zhou and Chen were arrested in 2019 for crimes related to theft of medical trade secrets, the DOJ said. 

They both received $1.5 million in transactions resulting from their exchange of exosome isolation intellectual property.

Chen was sentenced to 30 months in prison and three years of supervised release, and Zhou was sentenced to 33 months in prison.

"The court held that the couple’s wire fraud — and thus their conspiracy to commit wire fraud — constituted a crime involving moral turpitude that warranted the revocation of Defendants’ naturalization," the Justice Department said.