Lai also allegedly traveled to Houston in April 2025 and claimed the purpose of the visit was related to his business as an online retailer. He also claimed he would be staying in Houston for two weeks.

But on May 9, 2025, which was more than four weeks after he arrived in the U.S., Lai was seen traveling in a car with a companion from Houston to California, and back to Junction, Texas, on May 15.

Chen and Lai have been charged with operating in the U.S. as an agent of a foreign government without notifying the U.S. attorney general. If convicted, both men face a fine of up to $250,000 and up to 10 years behind bars.

“Hostile foreign intelligence services like the PRC’s Ministry of State Security dedicate years to recruiting individuals and cultivating them as intelligence assets to do their bidding within the United States,” Assistant Attorney General John Eisenberg of the Justice Department’s National Security Division said. “Under my leadership, the National Security Division will continue to defend our nation and way of life by rooting out and exposing our adversaries’ clandestine spy networks.”