Dr. Charles Lieber was convicted Tuesday by a federal jury after being found guilty of lying to the U.S. government about his questionable ties with the People’s Republic of China.
American chemist and former Harvard University professor Dr. Charles Lieber was convicted Tuesday by a federal jury after being found guilty of lying to the U.S. government about his questionable ties with the People’s Republic of China.
Dr. Lieber was charged with two counts of making and subscribing to a false income tax return, two counts of making false statements to federal authorities, and two counts of failing to report foreign financial accounts with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Dr. Lieber was arrested in January 2020, when he was the chairman of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard, along with two Chinese nationals for fraud.
Court documents showed that he had served as a “strategic scientist” for the Wuhan University of Technology (WUT) in China without Harvard knowing. Dr. Lieber was also said to be a contractual participant in China’s Thousand Talents Plan from 2012 to 2017. The plan is one of China’s most prominent Chinese Talent recruitment programs designed to bring in high-level scientific talents for its own development.
Dr. Lieber reportedly had a three-year contract wherein he received $50,000 monthly, plus a living allowance of around $158,000. He was also given over $1.5 million to set up a research facility in WUT.
During the same period, Dr. Lieber and his research team had also been receiving as much as $15 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Defense and the National Institutes of Health. When he was questioned about his involvement with China from 2018 to 2019, he had denied everything.
“There is now no question that Charles Lieber lied to federal investigators and to Harvard in an attempt to hide his participation in the Chinese Thousand Talents Program. He lied to the IRS about the money he was paid, and he concealed his Chinese bank account from the United States. The jury followed the evidence and the law to a just verdict,” said acting U.S. attorney Nathaniel Mendell in a statement.
“Mr. Lieber exploited the openness and transparency of our academic system. The FBI will not hesitate to work with our law enforcement partners to focus on those who put their financial and professional interests ahead of our country’s economic prosperity. By Charles Lieber’s own admission – after we arrested him – the evidence against him was formidable. He repeatedly lied to his employer, the federal government, and taxpayers to fraudulently maintain access to federal research funds,” commented Joseph R. Bonavolonta, the special agent in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Boston Division.
The charge for making false statements comes with up to five years in jail, three years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine. Falsifying income tax returns comes with up to three years in jail, a year of supervised release, and a $100,000 fine. Finally, failing to file FBARs often results in a prison sentence of up to five years, three years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine.
Dr. Lieber’s sentencing date is yet to be announced.
