Merck KGaA avoids prosecution after cooperating with DOJ to uncover China export scheme

Mer­ck KGaA’s sub­sidiary Mil­li­pore­Sig­ma has evad­ed charges from the US De­part­ment of Jus­tice af­ter ex­pos­ing an al­leged eight-year scheme by a for­mer em­ploy­ee and his ac­com­plice to il­le­gal­ly ship bio­chem­i­cals, such as co­caine and metham­phet­a­mine, to Chi­na.

Two men, Pen Yu, 51, and Gre­go­ry Muñoz, 45 and a for­mer Mil­li­pore­Sig­ma sales­man, have plead­ed guilty to one count of wire fraud con­spir­a­cy af­ter procur­ing $4.5 mil­lion-worth of prod­ucts from chem­i­cal com­pa­ny Sig­ma-Aldrich, a sub­sidiary of Mer­ck KGaA, and di­vert­ing them to Chi­na us­ing false ex­port doc­u­ments. Muñoz was fired in May 2023, a Mil­li­pore­Sig­ma spokesper­son told End­points News. 

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