A businessman from China, convicted in the United States for bribing Pacific island politicians to build a futuristic city-state, was prosecuted using the name of his twin brother, according to new revelations.
Cary Yan and his partner, Gina Zhou, pleaded guilty in a New York federal court in late 2022 for a scheme to bribe Marshall Islands officials. Their goal was to create an autonomous special economic zone in the remote nation, promising to transform a radioactive nuclear testing site into a high-tech hub.
The couple’s conviction capped a long journey that began with running a spa in a California strip mall and peddling a fake miracle water cure. They eventually mingled with diplomats and world leaders, as detailed in a 2023 investigation.
Now, Yan has disclosed that the FBI and federal prosecutors mistakenly charged him under his brother’s identity. In an interview in Kuala Lumpur, he said: “We’re twins. That’s why the FBI got everything mixed up in their report.”
Reporters verified his claim by cross-checking court files from his U.S. case with law enforcement and records from China’s Anhui province. American court documents show he was charged under the name “Cary,” but also listed as “Yan Hong Hui” in the indictment. That name actually belongs to his brother, Adam Yan. Cary Yan’s real name is Yan Hong Yue. The two look similar but are easily distinguishable.
Chinese court records show Adam Yan was arrested in 2020 and sentenced to seven years for his role in a pyramid scheme that netted nearly $18 million by selling mine waste as a miracle cure. Chinese authorities are also seeking Cary Yan’s arrest over the same scheme.
The name mix-up does not mean authorities imprisoned Yan for someone else’s crimes. He was convicted for acts committed while traveling the world on a Marshall Islands passport bearing his English name. However, the error highlights gaps in U.S. law enforcement’s ability to handle Chinese organized crime, according to Dennis Lormel, a former FBI special agent.
“There’s certainly a language understanding problem,” Lormel said. “And when you translate that in terms of trying to get proper identifications, we don’t have the cultural understanding we need to have.”
The FBI did not respond to requests for comment, and the Department of Justice’s Southern District of New York, which prosecuted the case, declined to comment.
The scheme Yan and Zhou were jailed for aimed to turn an uninhabited Marshall Islands region—made radioactive by U.S. nuclear testing—into a high-tech business hub. The plan raised concerns about Chinese influence due to its proximity to Kwajalein Atoll, home to a sensitive U.S. military facility used for monitoring space and testing missiles.
The project fell apart after the pair were arrested in Thailand in 2020 and extradited to the U.S. Both were deported to the Marshall Islands, where they held passports, in 2023 and 2024 after short stays in U.S. custody. They ended up stranded in Malaysia earlier this year, and their Marshall Islands passports have been revoked.