‘Extreme flight risk’: Zhang Yujing, Chinese woman arrested at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, owns US$1.3 million home and BMW, court told
- The FBI is investigating whether Zhang Yujing was working as a Chinese intelligence operative, sources say
- In court, she said she works for Shanghai Zhirong Asset Management, a private-equity business
Zhang Yujing, the Chinese woman arrested on Saturday after allegedly trying to take an unusual number of electronic devices into US President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, identified herself at a court hearing earlier this week as an investor and a consultant for a Shanghai private-equity business who appears to have amassed considerable wealth.
Speaking through a Mandarin interpreter, Zhang told a magistrate judge that she owns a US$1.3 million house in China and drives a BMW, according to an audio recording of her first appearance at the federal courthouse in West Palm Beach.
A federal prosecutor at the hearing said Zhang poses an “extreme risk of flight” from the United States if she is released from custody.
“She has no ties to the United States in general or to the Southern District of Florida in particular,” said the prosecutor, John McMillan.
McMillan also claimed there were “security implications” that should prevent Zhang from making phone calls while detained.
