Gregory Muñoz, Wire Fraud, Florida 2024

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Table of Contents

Florida Man Sentenced to 18 Months in Prison for Wire Fraud Scheme

Tampa, Florida – In a shocking turn of events, Gregory Muñoz (47, Minneola) has been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison for conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The court also entered an order of forfeiture in the amount of $100,000, the proceeds of the wire fraud. Muñoz pleaded guilty on May 9, 2024.

Muñoz’s co-conspirator, Pen Yu, pleaded guilty in May 2024 and was sentenced to three years and seven months in prison, later reduced to two years and six months in prison. Another co-conspirator, Jonathan Thyng, pleaded guilty in July 2024 and was sentenced to probation.

According to court documents, beginning in at least July 2016 and continuing through at least May 2023, Yu ordered biochemical products from MilliporeSigma, a subsidiary of multinational science and technology company Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. Muñoz, a MilliporeSigma salesperson, helped Yu by falsely representing that Yu was affiliated with a biology research lab at a Florida university. This fictitious affiliation led MilliporeSigma to provide Yu millions of dollars’ worth of discounts and other benefits, such as free overnight shipping, not available to the public.

Yu gave Muñoz thousands of dollars in gift cards for facilitating these fraudulent discounted orders. When the products arrived at the university stockroom, a stockroom employee diverted the products to Yu, who repackaged them and shipped them to China. To avoid scrutiny, Yu made false statements about the value and contents of these shipments in export documents.

This scheme continued until MilliporeSigma compliance personnel identified certain orders as suspicious, prompting the company to retain outside counsel who voluntarily disclosed the misconduct to the National Security Division one week later. MilliporeSigma made the disclosure well before its counsel had completed their investigation and understood the full nature and extent of the scheme. MilliporeSigma offered exceptional cooperation to the prosecution team, including by proactively identifying and producing documents to the Department that established probable cause to search residences and electronic devices of culpable individuals.

MilliporeSigma’s cooperation allowed investigators to quickly identify the individuals responsible for the scheme, including Yu, Muñoz, and Thyng, and secure their felony guilty pleas. The case highlights the importance of corporate cooperation in identifying and addressing complex white-collar crimes.

This case was investigated by the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security, and Homeland Security Investigations. Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel J. Marcet for the Middle District of Florida prosecuted the cases.