Sophisticated biomedical devices subject to rigorous export controls due to their value in creating biological warfare weapons were nevertheless sold by officials at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Agriculture (USDA) between 2022 and 2025.

Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigators said in a report made public October 1 that they “identified nine pieces of HHS and USDA laboratory equipment subject to export controls. Of the nine export-controlled items, seven belonged to HHS and two were from USDA. The nine export-controlled items that we identified included three freeze dryers and six mass spectrometers.”

“Freeze dryers can be used to preserve biological material such as viruses and toxins, as well as to produce powders for easier dissemination. Mass spectrometers are analytical instruments that can be used to identify and characterize proteins, and study their structures, functions, interactions, and modifications, such as how such proteins respond to viruses and treatments.”

The nine items subject to export controls were among more than 1,300 pieces of equipment sold during the covered period through the General Services Administration (GSA), which is the “federal government’s housekeeping agency.” In addition to buying, building, maintaining, and leasing federal office properties, GSA supplies billions of dollars worth of office and laboratory equipment and supplies, and disposes of it when it is no longer needed or is being replaced by newer models.

When, according to the report, GAO investigators reviewed the buyers of the nine pieces of export-controlled biomedical devices, they found reason to be concerned about their potential ties because “GSA data show that the purchasers of the HHS and USDA laboratory equipment included a range of recipients. For example, for the six items that were purchased by companies, three items were purchased by companies that appeared to be laboratory equipment resellers and the other three were purchased by companies that appeared to provide property disposal services, according to information available on the internet. Of the three individuals that bought export-controlled equipment, one was a professor at a university and two did not have any clear affiliation with a relevant entity.”

Any of the nine critical pieces that should not have been sold could end up in the wrong hands if the purchasers were not screening the recipients to whom they in turn sold the equipment. During the period covered by the GAO probe, nationwide headlines were generated when a warehouse near Fresno, California, that was thought to be abandoned in fact was being used as an unlicensed biolab by individuals with substantial connections to China.

The operator of the biolab, Jia Bei Zhu, also known as Jesse Zhu and David He, was found guilty in May 2026 on 12 federal counts: conspiracy, wire fraud, distributing adulterated and misbranded medical devices, and lying to the FDA. Prosecutors proved he sold more than one million COVID tests for nearly $4 million, misrepresenting Chinese-made products as American-made and FDA-approved.

Zhu has multiple connections to the Chinese government, including its military, according to a 2023 report of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The panel’s report’s findings said Zhu was “a wanted fugitive from Canada with a $330 million Canadian dollar judgment against him for stealing American intellectual property.” The report found that:

• Zhu was a “top official at a PRC-state-controlled company and had links to military-civil fusion entities.”
• “The illegal biolab received millions of dollars in unexplained payments from [People’s Republic of China] PRC banks while running the illegal biolab.
• “The illegal biolab contained thousands of samples of labeled, unlabeled, and encoded potential pathogens, including HIV, malaria, tuberculosis, and Covid.
• “The illegal biolab also contained a freezer labeled ‘Ebola,’ which contained unlabeled, sealed silver bags consistent with how the lab stored high risk biological materials. Ebola is a Select Agent with a lethality rate between 25-90%.
• “The biolab contained nearly a thousand transgenic mice, genetically engineered to mimic the human immune system. Lab workers said that the mice were designed ‘to catch and carry the COVID-19 virus.’”

It is important to note that, while he fits the profile of the sort of individual the export controls are intended to block, Zhu is not known to have connections with any of the buyers of the nine export-controlled devices improperly sold by HHS and the USDA via GSA. But earlier this year, he was discovered to be the owner of a house in Las Vegas that was being used as a biolab, much as the California warehouse had been.

Zhu is scheduled to be sentenced October 26. According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), his business partner Zhaoyan Wang fled shortly before Zhu’s arrest and remains in China. She is also charged in the case.

Biomedical security experts interviewed by GAO pointed to two critical risks “associated with the disposal of federal laboratory equipment, including both equipment on the Commerce Control List but also certain other types of equipment not on the list. According to these experts, the primary risks include nefarious actors (1) using the equipment to create a biological weapon or (2) obtaining sensitive information from the equipment.

“Nefarious actors could acquire laboratory equipment that allows them to safely work with, produce, preserve, and disseminate dangerous pathogens. For example, a nefarious actor could acquire a federal laboratory fermenter that could grow twice as many organisms as an improvised fermenter and for a cheaper price than on the commercial market, according to one expert,” the report added. 

The nine sales that should not have been allowed resulted from multiple factors cited by GAO, which said “HHS and USDA did not clearly indicate to GSA and purchasers of the equipment that any of the nine export-controlled items we identified as having been sold in fiscal years 2022 through 2025 had special handling requirements related to export controls. Such notification is required by the Federal Management Regulation.”

That failure was attributed to “a weakness in GSA’s Personal Property Management System[that] helps explain why HHS and USDA did not follow GSA’s notification requirements. Specifically, the GSA property management system that agencies use to list information about available property does not include a dedicated field, or other standardized way of indicating that an item is on the Commerce Control List,” the report stated.

“GSA officials acknowledged that there is not a dedicated field for identifying these items and that this could lead to improper reporting of Commerce Control List items,” the GAO report continued. “In the absence of a dedicated field, GSA officials said that there are several ways that an agency could indicate that a piece of laboratory equipment is on the Commerce Control List. However, we found that HHS and USDA did not utilize these methods to identify the nine items.”

Buyers of the nine export-controlled devices obtained them at bargain prices, according to the report.

“Two of the freeze dryers were sold to individuals through the GSA online auction for $29 and $208, respectively, according to the GSA data. The conditions of the freeze dryers were listed as either salvage or repairable, and the original costs of these items were approximately $12,000 and $25,000, respectively. The third freeze dryer was sold as part of a lot including other laboratory equipment for a total of $10,000, in comparison to the approximately $234,000 for which the GSA data indicates the agency acquired the freeze dryer,” the GAO noted.

“The six mass spectrometers were purchased from the GSA auction for between $6,750 and $99,000. The original cost for these items, all of which were listed in repairable or usable condition, ranged from about $310,000 to $824,000, according to GSA data,” the report stated.