Judge rejects planned guilty plea from suspect charged with stealing millions from missing Old Brookville couple

A Queens woman had planned to plead guilty to a federal bank fraud charge Wednesday in connection with allegations that she stole more than $2.8 million from a missing Old Brookville couple, but the plan collapsed after the woman told the judge she was "depressed" and had taken pain medication before court.

U.S. District Judge Nusrat J. Choudhury scrapped the scheduled guilty plea to a single count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud from Qiuju Wu, 58, of Flushing.

Choudhury said she needed to ensure that Wu, who appeared in federal court in Central Islip with a Mandarin interpreter, was in a proper "mental state" when pleading guilty and directed Wu's lawyer to further counsel his client.

"My job as a district judge is to make sure you fully understand your rights ... and based on your responses, I don't have that certainty," Choudhury told Wu.

Wu was arrested in September in Texas on charges that she and her co-defendant Yinye Wang, also known as "Roy Wang," 36, of Roslyn and College Point, Queens, stole $2.8 million from the bank accounts of JuanJuan Zwang and her husband, Peishuan Fan, who were last seen at their Old Brookville mansion on Maria Lane on March 30, 2025.

Wang was arrested in California and released on bond, but never appeared for a scheduled court date in New York. He remains on the lam.

Wu has no legal status in the United States, so she was held on an U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer, Newsday has reported.

Neither Wu nor Wang have been charged in connection with the mysterious disappearance of Fan and Zwang.

Fan, a business owner, and Zwang, a stay-at-home mother — who were both in their 40s when they disappeared — moved to the United States in 2022, initially living in a luxury apartment tower in Jersey City. The following year, they bought the Old Brookville mansion on Maria Lane for $3.8 million, paying in cash, Newsday has reported.

They left behind two sons — a sixth grader and a college student — both of whom have since returned to their native China, a lawyer for one of the sons previously told Newsday.

Nassau  police spokesperson Det. Tracey Cabey said Wednesday evening the missing persons investigation — which the FBI also joined — is ongoing.

There is "no additional information that we would like to report at this time," she said in an email.

In court Wednesday, the judge asked Wu a series of questions while she was under oath designed to determine whether a defendant is willingly and knowingly pleading guilty.

Wu, speaking through the Mandarin interpreter, told the judge she didn't finish the fourth grade in school.

"Sometimes I cry because I can't seem to understand things," Wu said.

She said she had felt "depressed" as recently as a few days ago.

"I don't even want to talk," she said, before disclosing she had not spoken to a psychiatrist because she doesn't understand English. Wu said she would seek treatment from a Mandarin-speaking psychiatrist if one were available.

Wu also added she had taken painkillers Wednesday morning, but could not identify the drug.

"Counsel, I don't see how I can proceed here," the judge said.

After a break, Wu's lawyer, Louis Henry Klein, of Flushing, told the judge that his client had referred to being depressed not in the clinical sense, but being unhappy about her current circumstances and she had been given ibuprofen for some body pain.

But the judge was unmoved. She set a status conference in the case for March 17.