A federal grand jury in Charleston indicted Yuan Li, a 35-year-old Chinese national living in the United States, on April 14 for conspiracy to obstruct justice.
The indictment alleges that Li joined the U.S. Navy in January 2022 after previously being discharged from the Army. While serving in the Navy, Li applied for U.S. citizenship but did not disclose whether he had been discharged under conditions other than honorable and listed a fraudulent address in San Francisco as his residence.
Investigators looking into housing allowance fraud and assault discovered that Li communicated with a foreign national through Red Note, a Chinese social media app. According to the indictment, this foreign contact attempted to purchase information from Li related to his service member status. When Li became aware of the investigation, he instructed an accomplice to delete various messaging apps from his phone and restore electronic devices to factory settings, actions that would have destroyed records of contact with the foreign national.
Li was arrested in Florida on March 6 and appeared before United States Magistrate Judge Mary Gordon Baker for arraignment on April 13. He is currently detained pending trial. The Department of Homeland Security and Naval Criminal Investigative Service investigated the case, which is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean Kittrell.
Li faces up to five years imprisonment if convicted of conspiracy and up to twenty years for obstruction charges. Authorities remind that all charges are accusations at this stage; defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
