Harvard professor charged for lying about $1.5M Chinese research scheme
The chairman of Harvard University’s chemistry department was charged Tuesday with lying to the US Defense Department about his dealings with Chinese research agencies while receiving federal research funds, officials said.
Charles Lieber is accused of receiving more than $1.5 million to establish a lab and do research at Wuhan University, according to prosecutors, who said he was paid hundreds of thousands more over several years, Bloomberg News reported.
He was charged with one count of making false statements to a US government agency, according to court records.
“This is not an accident or a coincidence,” US Attorney Andrew Lelling said at a press conference in Boston, where Lieber was charged in federal court.
“This is a small sample of China’s ongoing campaign to siphon off American know-how and technology for China’s gain,” Lelling added.
Prosecutors said Lieber lied about his involvement with the university and China’s “Thousand Talents Plan,” a program to recruit overseas researchers.
His alleged actions dating back to 2011 caused Harvard to make false statements to the National Institutes of Health about his work with China, because grants that the Ivy League school received required disclosure of ties with foreign governments, officials said.
“The charges brought by the U.S. government against Professor Lieber are extremely serious. Harvard is cooperating with federal authorities, including the National Institutes of Health, and is conducting its own review of the alleged misconduct,” a Harvard rep told The Post in an email, adding that Lieber has been placed on “indefinite administrative leave.”
In a five-year contract with Wuhan University, Lieber’s personal research company agreed to make “strategic” scientific proposals, supervise young teachers, conduct nationally “important” projects and take other steps to benefit the institution, according to the report.
Lieber graduated from Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with honors in chemistry, according to his Harvard bio.
He completed doctoral studies at Stanford University and post-doctoral research at the California Institute of Technology. In 1987, he joined Columbia University as an assistant professor.
Four years later, he moved to Harvard, where he serves as chairman of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology.
Lieber is one of several academics the US has criminally charged for their dealings with China.
Last year, University of Kansas researcher Franklin (Feng) Tao was charged with hiding that he was working full time for a Chinese university while performing US-funded industrial research.
The feds last month also accused a Chinese medical student of trying to smuggle cancer research specimens out of the country.
Zaosong Zheng, 30, had been working in Boston when he was nabbed in December at Logan International Airport allegedly trying to smuggle 21 vials of biological research in his bag as he tried to board a flight for China.
The feds say Zheng admitted that he stole the vials from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where he worked as a cancer researcher.
Meanwhile, a lieutenant in China’s People’s Liberation Army, Yanqing Ye, 29, is accused of lying on her visa application to gain entry into the US, claiming she was just a student.
While working at Boston University’s Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biomedical Engineering from 2017 to 2019, Ye also was taking orders from Chinese military officers to conduct research, assess US military Web sites and send US documents back to China, the feds allege.
Ye is charged with visa fraud, conspiracy, making false statements and acting as an illegal agent for a foreign government. She is currently in China, according to the feds.
“While we are still confronted with traditional spies … I can tell you China is also using what we call nontraditional collectors such as professors, researchers, hackers and front companies,” Joseph Bonavolonta, head of the FBI’s Boston office, told the Wall Street Journal.
-Additional reporting by Andrew Denney