On August 4th, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors issued an executive order mandating all County employees provide proof of vaccination against COVID-19, or face potential termination. L.A. County awarded a no-bid contract to Fulgent Genetics Corporation to provide testing/registration services.

Fulgent Genetics was also awarded a contract to provide COVID-19 testing for New York City public schools through the 2021 school year.

However, Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva has notified the LA County Board of Supervisors that LASD will not work with a China-linked genetics firm hired by the county to conduct Covid-19 testing and registration, after the FBI shared “very concerning information” about Fulgent Genetics Corporation – which was awarded a no-bid contract for the work.

“This letter is to inform you the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (Department) will not participate in COVID-19 registering or testing with Fulgent Genetics Corporation (Fulgent), due to the fact the DNA data obtained is not guaranteed to be safe and secure from foreign governments and “will likely be shared with the Republic of China,”” wrote Sheriff Alex Villanueva in a Monday letter.

Villanueva writes that on Nov. 24 he was contacted by the FBI’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Coordinator, who shared “very concerning information” about Fulgent.

“I was shocked to learn Fulgent had strong ties with BGl2, WuXi3, and Huawei Technology 4 , all of which are linked to the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) State Council and are under the control of the PRC.” the letter continues. “I was even more shocked to learn Fulgent made no attempt to disguise the fact they will use the genetic information obtained in future studies.“

Villanueva claimed DNA data obtained through tests are “not guaranteed to be safe and secure from foreign governments” and said FBI officials advised him at the briefing that genetic information the company collects is likely to be shared with the Chinese government. Fulgent Genetics, he alleged in the letter, has “strong ties” with Chinese technology and genomics companies, but he did not elaborate on what those ties are.

Villanueva then blasted officials over how Fulgent was hired in the first place, writing “I am deeply concerned as to the vetting process which either failed to discover this, or discovered it, but chose to ignore it. A simple internet search would have uncovered all of the above facts.”

“Entering into a no-bid contract with Fulgent Genetics and allowing them to have the DNA data obtained from mandatory COVID-19 testing, for unknown purposes, has shattered all confidence my personnel have in this entire process under the County mandate. Many personnel have long suspected this information was being used in an unnecessary manner due to a rushed mandate that we now know will have long-term unintended consequences that will not be fully known for some time.

Villanueva also noted that the “FBI felt strongly enough regarding Fulgent being used to test County personnel that they held an emergency briefing to disclose their concerns.”

Villanueva said the county’s top attorney and chief executive also attended the recent FBI briefing at the agency’s Los Angeles office. An FBI spokesperson declined to comment when asked to confirm what was discussed at the meeting.

Fulgent’s chief commercial officer, Brandon Perthuis, dismissed the sheriff’s allegations as untrue. In a statement Tuesday, Perthuis wrote that the U.S.-based company was founded and is led by American citizens. He said the company does not share personal data about people who are tested with the Chinese government and that the company does not use samples collected during tests to sequence people’s unique DNA structure.

County employees are required to register their vaccination status with Fulgent, and those who are not vaccinated are required to submit to regular testing. Villanueva said the Sheriff’s Department would use its own registration system and work with vetted testing companies that are not associated with Fulgent.

The founder Fulgent Genetics is billionaire Ming Hsieh, who was born in China but is now a naturalized American citizen.

Of note, China’s ambitions to build the world’s largest DNA database are no secret to anyone listening to CBS News (60 Minutes), or the Wall Street Journal.