Lehigh County Couple Charged in Wire Fraud Scheme

An Upper Saucon couple have been charged by indictment with several counts of wire fraud related to a government program, according to authorities.

Yujie Ding, 52, and Yuliya Zotova, 40, both of Center Valley, were each charged with 10 counts of wire fraud following the unsealing of an indictment, according to the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Ding, a computer and electrical engineering professor at Lehigh University, was charged with fraud in November 2014, according to The Express-Times. The indictment unsealed this week is the first time his wife, Zotova, had been charged in the case, the newspaper said.

Ding and Zotova submitted a proposal to NASA in August 2009, claiming they needed funding for a research project aimed at creating a device to detect trace levels of chemicals, according to the indictment. The U.S. Attorney’s Office reported, the defendants’ proposal claimed research would be performed at their business, ArkLight, and subcontracted to students at Lehigh University.

According to the indictment, Ding and Zotova had no such facility in which to conduct the research, but, instead, were using their business as a front to funnel the funds from NASA to themselves for work done by students and others in Ding’s university lab.

Additionally, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reports Ding sent invoices to NASA totaling $560,000 for work that was not done to the specifications of the proposal.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, if Ding and Zotova are convicted of all charges against them, they will each face a maximum possible statutory sentence of 200 years in prison, three years supervised release, a fine up to $2.5 million, a $1,000 special assessment and forfeiture.

For more information, visit the U.S. Attorney’s Office website or read the entire indictment here.