{"id":27582,"date":"2016-10-26T14:40:07","date_gmt":"2016-10-26T21:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=27582"},"modified":"2016-10-26T14:40:07","modified_gmt":"2016-10-26T21:40:07","slug":"27582-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=27582","title":{"rendered":"Arkansas Geneticist Admits Planning to Steal Rice Seeds to Send to China"},"content":{"rendered":"

ARKANSAS<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\"dale-bumpers\"
U.S. Department of Agriculture at the Dale Bumpers National Research Center in Stuttgart<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Wengui Yan,<\/strong> 61, of Stuttgart, Arkansas, plead guilty to one count of making false statements to the FBI while working as a geneticist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture at the Dale Bumpers National Research Center in Stuttgart, according to officials.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Yan, a scientist who worked with rice, admitted Monday that he knew about plans to steal samples and send them to China, officials said.<\/span><\/p>\n

In his plea, Yan admitted that on Aug. 7, 2013, agents of U.S. Customs and Border Protection found stolen seeds in the luggage of a group of visitors from China preparing to board a plane to return home, according to authorities.<\/span><\/p>\n

The group had visited the facility in Stuttgart. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"05seeds_part-superjumbo\"
Zhang Weiqiang, left, and Yan Wengui. The agricultural scientists are accused of giving proprietary rice seeds that contained medicinal qualities to crop researchers in their native China.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yan admitted that before the Chinese group arrived, a co-defendant in Kansas had asked him for seeds and Yan had declined because the seeds were protected. The co-defendant told Yan about other individuals seeking to steal samples of the seeds. When the delegation came to Stuttgart, Yan traveled with them to a rice farm where he knew they would have an opportunity to steal seeds, officials said.<\/span><\/p>\n

After the theft, Yan denied knowing about the plans to steal the seeds or about the theft itself. <\/span><\/p>\n

Investigators said they also learned that Yan attempted to cover up a trip he made to China to visit the crops research institute that sent the delegation to the United States.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

China has long been implicated in economic espionage efforts involving aviation technology, paint formulas and financial data. Chinese knockoffs of fashion accessories have long held a place in the mainstream, according to officials.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the case of \u00a0Mo \u2014 who was arraigned last week in Des Moines, pleaded not guilty and remains in custody \u2014 and a separate one in Kansas last year suggest that the agriculture sector is becoming a greater target, something that industry analysts fear could hurt the competitive advantage of farmers and big agriculture alike, according to a New York Times 2014 report.<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAgriculture is an emerging trend that we\u2019re seeing,\u201d Robert Anderson Jr., assistant director of counterintelligence at the F.B.I. told the New York Times. Adding that the trend has developed internationally in the last two years. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty clear cut. Before then, the majority of the countries and hostile intelligence services within those countries were stealing the other stuff.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Sentencing is set for a later date. Under the plea agreement, Yan facing up to 20 months in federal prison.<\/span><\/p>\n

Co-defendant Weiqiang Zhang<\/strong>, 50, of Manhattan, Kansas, is awaiting trial.<\/span><\/p>\n

Zhang is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n

*Acting Assistant Attorney General McCord and Acting U.S. Attorney Beall commended the FBI\u2019s Little Rock and Kansas City Field Offices, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Eastern District of Arkansas.<\/span><\/p>\n

McCord and Beall also commended Trial Attorney Matt Walczewski for the National Security Division\u2019s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section, Trial Attorneys Brian Resler and Evan Williams for the Criminal Division\u2019s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Rask of the District of Kansas for their work on the case.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ARKANSAS Wengui Yan, 61, of Stuttgart, Arkansas, plead guilty to one count of making false statements to the FBI while working as a geneticist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture at the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27583,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,3],"tags":[3116,3115],"class_list":["post-27582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home-main-slider","category-u-s-department-of-justice","tag-rice-seeds","tag-u-s-department-of-agriculture-at-the-dale-bumpers-national-research-center-in-stuttgart"],"yoast_head":"\nArkansas Geneticist Admits Planning to Steal Rice Seeds to Sent to China<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Wengui Yan, 61, plead guilty to one count of making false statements to the FBI while working as a geneticist for the federal government.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=27582\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Arkansas Geneticist Admits Planning to Steal Rice Seeds to Sent to China\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Wengui Yan, 61, plead guilty to one count of making false statements to the FBI while working as a geneticist for the federal government.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=27582\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"American Justice Notebook\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AmericanJusticeNotebook\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-10-26T21:40:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/milled-rice-new.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"520\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"320\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Raul\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Raul\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=27582#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=27582\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Raul\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f5521baddca77b521f012298775186c0\"},\"headline\":\"Arkansas Geneticist Admits Planning to Steal Rice Seeds to Send to China\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-10-26T21:40:07+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=27582\"},\"wordCount\":585,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=27582#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/10\\\/milled-rice-new.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Rice Seeds\",\"U.S. Department of Agriculture at the Dale Bumpers National Research Center in Stuttgart\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Home Main Slider\",\"U.S. Department of Justice\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=27582#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=27582\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=27582\",\"name\":\"Arkansas Geneticist Admits Planning to Steal Rice Seeds to Sent to China\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=27582#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=27582#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/10\\\/milled-rice-new.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-10-26T21:40:07+00:00\",\"description\":\"Wengui Yan, 61, plead guilty to one count of making false statements to the FBI while working as a geneticist for the federal government.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=27582\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=27582#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/10\\\/milled-rice-new.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/10\\\/milled-rice-new.jpg\",\"width\":520,\"height\":320},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"American Justice Notebook\",\"description\":\""Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost." \u2014 Thomas Jefferson\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"American Justice Notebook\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/07\\\/Justice-Scales.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/07\\\/Justice-Scales.jpg\",\"width\":675,\"height\":231,\"caption\":\"American Justice Notebook\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/AmericanJusticeNotebook\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f5521baddca77b521f012298775186c0\",\"name\":\"Raul\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/c7f80bd073aca2abc2fc18e390e13d00b72d9d3a81bca4fd53e3567b02efee6f?s=96&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/c7f80bd073aca2abc2fc18e390e13d00b72d9d3a81bca4fd53e3567b02efee6f?s=96&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/c7f80bd073aca2abc2fc18e390e13d00b72d9d3a81bca4fd53e3567b02efee6f?s=96&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Raul\"},\"description\":\"Raul Hernandez is a former journalist. He has worked as a newspaper reporter for more than 30 years at the El Paso Herald-Post, El Paso Times, Press Enterprise in Riverside, California and the Ventura County Star in California. He was a court reporter for more than 20 years.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Arkansas Geneticist Admits Planning to Steal Rice Seeds to Sent to China","description":"Wengui Yan, 61, plead guilty to one count of making false statements to the FBI while working as a geneticist for the federal government.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=27582","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Arkansas Geneticist Admits Planning to Steal Rice Seeds to Sent to China","og_description":"Wengui Yan, 61, plead guilty to one count of making false statements to the FBI while working as a geneticist for the federal government.","og_url":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=27582","og_site_name":"American Justice Notebook","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AmericanJusticeNotebook","article_published_time":"2016-10-26T21:40:07+00:00","og_image":[{"width":520,"height":320,"url":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/milled-rice-new.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Raul","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Raul","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=27582#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=27582"},"author":{"name":"Raul","@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5521baddca77b521f012298775186c0"},"headline":"Arkansas Geneticist Admits Planning to Steal Rice Seeds to Send to China","datePublished":"2016-10-26T21:40:07+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=27582"},"wordCount":585,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=27582#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/milled-rice-new.jpg","keywords":["Rice Seeds","U.S. Department of Agriculture at the Dale Bumpers National Research Center in Stuttgart"],"articleSection":["Home Main Slider","U.S. Department of Justice"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=27582#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=27582","url":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=27582","name":"Arkansas Geneticist Admits Planning to Steal Rice Seeds to Sent to China","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=27582#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=27582#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/milled-rice-new.jpg","datePublished":"2016-10-26T21:40:07+00:00","description":"Wengui Yan, 61, plead guilty to one count of making false statements to the FBI while working as a geneticist for the federal government.","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=27582"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=27582#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/milled-rice-new.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/milled-rice-new.jpg","width":520,"height":320},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/","name":"American Justice Notebook","description":""Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost." \u2014 Thomas Jefferson","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/#organization","name":"American Justice Notebook","url":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Justice-Scales.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Justice-Scales.jpg","width":675,"height":231,"caption":"American Justice Notebook"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AmericanJusticeNotebook"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5521baddca77b521f012298775186c0","name":"Raul","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c7f80bd073aca2abc2fc18e390e13d00b72d9d3a81bca4fd53e3567b02efee6f?s=96&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c7f80bd073aca2abc2fc18e390e13d00b72d9d3a81bca4fd53e3567b02efee6f?s=96&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c7f80bd073aca2abc2fc18e390e13d00b72d9d3a81bca4fd53e3567b02efee6f?s=96&r=g","caption":"Raul"},"description":"Raul Hernandez is a former journalist. He has worked as a newspaper reporter for more than 30 years at the El Paso Herald-Post, El Paso Times, Press Enterprise in Riverside, California and the Ventura County Star in California. He was a court reporter for more than 20 years.","sameAs":["https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27582"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27587,"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27582\/revisions\/27587"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}