Dr. Charles Lieber, Lying to NIH, Massachusetts 2023

Grimy Times

Harvard University Professor and China Nationals Charged in Three Separate Cases

Grimy Times has learned that Dr. Charles Lieber, Chair of Harvard University’s Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department, was arrested today in connection with aiding the People’s Republic of China.

Lieber, 60, was charged by criminal complaint with one count of making a materially false, fictitious and fraudulent statement.

According to court documents, Lieber, who has served as the Principal Investigator of the Lieber Research Group at Harvard University, received more than $15,000,000 in grant funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Department of Defense (DOD) since 2008. These grants require the disclosure of significant foreign financial conflicts of interest, including financial support from foreign governments or foreign entities.

Lieber became a “Strategic Scientist” at Wuhan University of Technology (WUT) in China and was a contractual participant in China’s Thousand Talents Plan from in or about 2012 to 2017. China’s Thousand Talents Plan is one of the most prominent Chinese Talent recruit plans that are designed to attract, recruit, and cultivate high-level scientific talent in furtherance of China’s scientific development, economic prosperity and national security.

Under the terms of Lieber’s three-year Thousand Talents contract, WUT paid Lieber $50,000 USD per month, living expenses of up to 1,000,000 Chinese Yuan (approximately $158,000 USD at the time) and awarded him more than $1.5 million to establish a research lab at WUT.

The complaint alleges that in 2018 and 2019, Lieber lied about his involvement in the Thousand Talents Plan and affiliation with WUT. On or about, April 24, 2018, during an interview with investigators, Lieber stated that he was never asked to participate in the Thousand Talents Program, but he “wasn’t sure” how China categorized him. In November 2018, NIH inquired of Harvard whether Lieber had failed to disclose his then-suspected relationship with WUT and China’s Thousand Talents Plan. Lieber 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.

Dr. Charles Lieber

Yanqing Ye, 29, a Chinese national, was charged in an indictment today with one count each of visa fraud, making false statements, acting as an agent of a foreign government and conspiracy. Ye is currently in China.

Zaosong Zheng, 30, a Chinese national, was arrested on Dec. 10, 2019, at Boston’s Logan International Airport and charged by criminal complaint with attempting to smuggle 21 vials of biological research to China. On Jan. 21, 2020, Zheng was indicted on one count of smuggling goods from the United States and one count of making false, fictitious or fraudulent statements. He has been detained since Dec. 30, 2019.

Yanqing Ye

Zaosong Zheng

Mandatory Facts:

Defendant: Dr. Charles Lieber

Crime: Making a materially false, fictitious and fraudulent statement

City: Boston, Massachusetts

Date: 2023

Sentence/Outcome: Currently in custody

Dollar Amounts: Received more than $15,000,000 in grant funding, $50,000 USD per month, living expenses of up to 1,000,000 Chinese Yuan ($158,000 USD at the time) and awarded more than $1.5 million

Source: https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/harvard-university-professor-and-two-chinese-nationals-charged-three-separate-china-related