{"id":33609,"date":"2025-07-02T21:36:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T21:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/33609\/"},"modified":"2025-07-02T21:36:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T21:36:09","slug":"navy-reservist-admits-bribery-to-get-chinese-bogus-nas-jacksonville-ids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/33609\/","title":{"rendered":"Navy reservist admits bribery to get Chinese bogus NAS Jacksonville IDs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;right:0;bottom:0;width:100%;height:100%;z-index:2\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/28911775001_5847089728001_5847085602001-vs.jpg\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"vidplayicon\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/appservices\/universal-web\/universal\/icons\/icon-play-alt-white.svg\" alt=\"play\" style=\"height:40px;margin:auto 18px auto 27px;width:40px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Chinese spy charged with economic espionage<\/p>\n<p>Benjamin Glassman announced the arrest of Chinese intelligence officer Yanjun Xu, in connection with conspiring to steal trade secrets from the U.S.<\/p>\n<p>Kareem Elgazzar, Cincinnati Enquirer<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Navy reservist Raymond Zumba pleaded guilty to bribery for paying to have a civilian contractor to create fake Navy IDs.<\/li>\n<li>Zumba offered $3,500 for two fake IDs, claiming they were for his wife&#8217;s Chinese-born parents.<\/li>\n<li>Zumba also suggested a sham marriage scheme for financial gain, raising national security concerns.<\/li>\n<li>The incident occurred amidst heightened awareness of Chinese attempts to infiltrate the U.S. military.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A U.S. Navy reservist has pleaded guilty to paying for a civilian contractor at Naval Air Station Jacksonville to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jacksonville.com\/story\/news\/local\/2025\/02\/27\/man-charged-seeking-jacksonivlle-navy-base-ids-for-immigration-purposes\/80085828007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">create bogus Navy ID cards<\/a> for two Chinese immigrants, one in the country illegally.<\/p>\n<p>Raymond Andres Zumba, 27, could face up to 15 years behind bars for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/uscode\/text\/18\/201\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">bribery of a public official<\/a>, the charge he admitted to July 2 in Jacksonville\u2019s federal court.<\/p>\n<p>Zumba, who formerly served on the Mayport-based destroyer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jacksonville.com\/story\/news\/local\/2024\/05\/19\/uss-carney-goes-above-and-beyond-duty-returns-home-from-mideast-conflict-to-heros-welcome-in-mayport\/73736940007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">USS Carney<\/a>, told an ex-shipmate the cards were \u201cfor immigration purposes to show that the \u2026 [card holders] were married to service members,\u201d according to a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/25544409-chinese-navy-id-usa-v-raymond-zumba-complaint-021825\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">complaint<\/a>\u00a0filed\u00a0in February.<\/p>\n<p class=\"related-link\"><strong style=\"margin-right:3px\">Earlier: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.jacksonville.com\/story\/news\/courts\/2021\/07\/15\/feds-chinese-ceo-jacksonville-export-case-wanted-copy-u-s-tech\/7944636002\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chinese CEO gets prison in Jacksonville export ploy to &#8216;reverse engineer&#8217; US military gear<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Mr. Zumba, is that what you did?&#8221; U.S. Magistrate Judge <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jacksonville.com\/story\/news\/columns\/nate-monroe\/2023\/10\/04\/nate-monroe-magistrate-shoots-down-ex-jea-cfo-request-to-toss-charges\/71055486007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Monte Richardson<\/a> asked the defendant wearing a jail-issued jumpsuit.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Yes, your honor,&#8221; Zumba answered.<\/p>\n<p>This could be a particularly delicate time to admit charges like that.<\/p>\n<p>On June 27, federal agents arrested two people in Houston and Portland, Ore., charging them with illegally <a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/25988293-chinese-agents-usa-v-yuance-chen-liren-lai-doj-release-070125\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">acting as Chinese agents<\/a> helping China&#8217;s intelligence service identify sailors who could become their assets.<\/p>\n<p>The June arrests didn&#8217;t involve Zumba, but U.S. Attorney General <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/ag\/staff-profile\/meet-attorney-general\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pam Bondi<\/a> remarked after charges were filed that the pair&#8217;s case \u201cunderscores the Chinese government\u2019s sustained and aggressive effort to infiltrate our military and undermine our national security from within.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Zumba\u2019s case grew from a discussion he had over <a href=\"https:\/\/www.snapchat.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Snapchat <\/a>in January with a former shipmate from the Carney about getting IDs that the U.S. Attorney&#8217;s Office described in a release as &#8220;real, but unauthorized identification cards.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The ex-shipmate was married to a civilian contractor working in a NAS Jacksonville office that issues IDs for servicemembers and families to enter the base, which is closed to the public.<\/p>\n<p>The ex-shipmate reported Zumba\u2019s offer to the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and helped agents build a case. Neither the shipmate nor his spouse are named in court records.<\/p>\n<p>Zumba, who lived in New York following his active-duty military service, offered $3,500 for the ex-shipmate\u2019s spouse to make ID cards that Zumba said would be used by his wife&#8217;s Chinese-born parents.<\/p>\n<p>Zumba also said the ex-shipmate and his spouse could make $35,000 each by being part of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uscis.gov\/newsroom\/news-releases\/uscis-assists-with-ice-investigation-that-dismantled-a-nationwide-marriage-fraud-operation\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">sham marriages<\/a> to Chinese immigrants trying to become permanent U.S. residents, or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uscis.gov\/green-card\/green-card-eligibility-categories\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cgreen card\u201d<\/a> holders.<\/p>\n<p>Zumba said his in-laws were interested in getting IDs for military relatives, called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cac.mil\/Next-Generation-Uniformed-Services-ID-Card\/Getting-Your-ID-Card\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">dependent cards<\/a> or USIDs, to get innocent things like access to on-base shopping, according to court records. But the records also said Zumba remarked that &#8220;if this deal was successful, then other individuals would also be interested in obtaining USIDs.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Zumba also reported the cards were for immigration purposes, according to the original complaint in February said.<\/p>\n<p>But that filing added that Department of Homeland Security photo databases identified one of the two in-laws as a native of China who had already been naturalized as a U.S. citizen. The databases identified the other as a Chinese national &#8220;unlawfully present in the U.S.,&#8221; according to the original complaint from February. The complaint also said Zumba sent the shipmate a photo of the woman&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usa.gov\/certificate-citizenship-naturalization\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">naturalization certificate<\/a> with a different first name.<\/p>\n<p>Court records refer to the man and woman Zumba was speaking for as \u201cthe Chinese buyers\u201d and don\u2019t say whether they were in fact the reservist\u2019s in-laws.<\/p>\n<p>Assistant U.S. Attorney David Mesrobian said after Zumba\u2019s plea that he couldn\u2019t say whether they\u2019re related. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The ex-shipmate arranged in February for his spouse to meet Zumba, the would-be passholders and a translator after normal work hours to prepare the IDs, collecting photos and fingerprints for the cards, court records said.<\/p>\n<p>The ex-shipmate and Zumba met the next day to exchange the IDs for the $3,500 outside a restaurant where the female buyer and the translator had lunch. The two men finished their transaction and joined the lunch, where police and federal agents arrested Zumba.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s not known whether the Chinese buyers or others tied to Zumba are facing charges as well but the docket from Zumba&#8217;s prosecution doesn&#8217;t t reflect any related cases.<\/p>\n<p>This story was updated to refine headlines and add information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chinese spy charged with economic espionage Benjamin Glassman announced the arrest of Chinese intelligence officer Yanjun Xu, in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":33610,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[691,2529,5229,28036,11329,18057,74,281,4219,11313,2488,441,3188,723,2487,409,7310,8142,4630,1802,28034,14634,5502,50,11328,11335,28035,28038,6751,645,2490,1439,28037,25730,646,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,23509,23510],"class_list":{"0":"post-33609","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-air","10":"tag-america","11":"tag-bargains","12":"tag-bondi","13":"tag-bribery","14":"tag-china","15":"tag-court","16":"tag-crime","17":"tag-crime-u0026-justice","18":"tag-enabled","19":"tag-federal","20":"tag-fl","21":"tag-florida","22":"tag-highlights","23":"tag-immigration","24":"tag-jacksonville","25":"tag-justice","26":"tag-legal","27":"tag-military","28":"tag-naval","29":"tag-naval-air-station-jacksonville","30":"tag-navy","31":"tag-news","32":"tag-pam","33":"tag-pam-bondi","34":"tag-plea","35":"tag-plea-bargains","36":"tag-station","37":"tag-story","38":"tag-story-highlights-ai-enabled","39":"tag-u-s","40":"tag-u-s-federal-court","41":"tag-u-s-navy","42":"tag-u0026","43":"tag-united-states","44":"tag-united-states-of-america","45":"tag-unitedstates","46":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","47":"tag-us","48":"tag-usa","49":"tag-visa","50":"tag-visa-u0026-immigration"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}