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Harvard Professor Indicted on False Statement Charges
BOSTON – Dr. Charles Lieber, 61, the former Chair of Harvard University’s Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department, has been indicted on charges of making false statements to federal authorities regarding his participation in China’s Thousand Talents Program.
Lieber, who was arrested on Jan. 28, 2020, has been charged by a federal grand jury with two counts of making false statements. He will be arraigned in federal court in Boston at a later date.
According to charging documents, since 2008, Dr. Lieber has served as the Principal Investigator of the Lieber Research Group at Harvard University, specializing in the area of nanoscience. His research at the Lieber Research Group has been funded by more than $15 million in research grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Department of Defense (DOD). These grants required the disclosure of all sources of research support, potential financial conflicts of interest and all foreign collaboration.
It is alleged that, unbeknownst to Harvard University, beginning in 2011, Lieber became a “Strategic Scientist” at Wuhan University of Technology (WUT) in China. He later became a contractual participant in China’s Thousand Talents Plan from at least 2012 through 2015, earning up to $50,000 USD per month, living expenses of up to $1 million Chinese Yuan (approximately $158,000 USD at the time) and was awarded more than $1.5 million to establish a research lab at WUT.
The Thousand Talents Plan is designed to attract, recruit, and cultivate high-level scientific talent in furtherance of China’s scientific development, economic prosperity and national security. In return for his involvement, Lieber was obligated to work for WUT “not less than nine months a year” by “declaring international cooperation projects, cultivating young teachers and Ph.D. students, organizing international conference[s], applying for patents and publishing articles in the name of [WUT].”
It is alleged that in 2018 and 2019, Lieber lied to federal authorities about his involvement in the Thousand Talents Plan and his affiliation with WUT. He allegedly caused Harvard to falsely tell NIH that Lieber “had no formal association with WUT” after 2012, that “WUT continued to falsely exaggerate” his involvement with WUT in subsequent years, and that Lieber “is not and has never been a participant in” China’s Thousand Talents Plan.
The charge of making false statements provides for a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Key Facts
- State: Massachusetts
- Category: Public Corruption
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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