An investigation into a California medical supply firm connected to China found a pattern of limited oversight, legal negligence, and an unsanitary underground laboratory.

Court records, health reports, and interviews related to Universal Meditech Inc. (UMI) reviewed by Fox News raised questions about the company’s legitimacy.

The underground biolab was discovered last year at an abandoned warehouse in Reedley, California. Chinese-based Qingdao Guangdi Packaging Material Co. Ltd. is the parent company of UMI.

“We don’t have all the answers of what was happening in this lab,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said recently, per Fox News. “This is very disturbing.”

A CDC report found 20 different infectious agents inside UMI’s building.

The report detailed how the warehouse contained tuberculosis, dengue, HIV, COVID-19, and malaria cultures. The investigation, the CDC claimed, was difficult to conduct due to a lack of cooperation on UMI’s part.

Joe Prado, assistant director of the Fresno County Department of Public Health, said his agency experienced similar challenges in its investigations.

“We wanted to know what were you doing, what chemicals did you have on-site, what type of lab operations you had, and even at that time, they were unresponsive to us,” Prado told Fox News.

UMI previously claimed it was ​​making COVID-19 and pregnancy tests at the lab. But two companies, CovidScan and Sensiva, said the COVID-19 tests they purchased from UMI were of poor quality and did not meet regulatory expectations.

In fact, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a blanket warning to consumers against using any of UMI’s tests on August 11.

Jeff Johnston, the CEO of CovidScan, told Fox News the representative at UMI he worked with in 2020 was “very secretive about the ownership.”

“I think it was a lot of smoke and mirrors,” Johnston said. “It was always a sidestep. He was never very clear on the ownership. He would dance around it.”

International shipping records provided to Fox News allegedly revealed that UMI received at least 16 trans-Pacific shipments in recent years, which almost always came from China.

UMI spent two years in litigation with Sensiva, which it had entered into a contract within early 2021. UMI’s lawyers pulled out of the case in 2022, according to court records reviewed by Fox News. Its new lawyers had difficulties contacting UMI, which led a judge to allow them to withdraw from the case as well.

Another company, Valor Distribution, reached a deal to purchase COVID-19 tests from UMI in late 2021. It also became concerned with the quality of the tests and filed a lawsuit that alleged UMI told them its test kits did not need FDA approval.

Valor Distribution was unable to contact anyone affiliated with UMI to serve the lawsuit notice.

UMI then hired lawyer Justin Vecchiarelli, who later filed a lawsuit of his own last September that alleged he did not receive proper compensation.

Vecchiarelli claimed UMI “duped and deceived him” into “providing legal services to UMI that they never intended to pay for,” according to Fox News.

The Fresno County District Attorney’s office told Fox News its investigation into UMI is ongoing.