EXCLUSIVE — Federal agencies sold off used or excess laboratory equipment flagged as high-risk exports that could be used in biological warfare to apparent resellers, according to an undercover investigation conducted by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

The GAO found that from fiscal 2022 through 2025, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture sold nine unneeded scientific instruments that were on the U.S. Interactive Commerce Control List to individuals and companies in the United States and Canada, some of which appeared to be resellers.