Feng Tao, Wire Fraud, Kansas 2023

Feng Tao, a 50-year-old former University of Kansas professor, has been convicted by a federal jury on three counts of wire fraud and one count of false statements.

Tao, also known as Franklin Tao, worked as a full-time professor at KU and was employed by Fuzhou University in China as a Changjiang Scholar Distinguished Professor. However, he deliberately concealed his ties to the Chinese government-affiliated university while working on U.S. government-funded research at KU.

According to court documents, in 2018, Tao accepted a position with Fuzhou University, which required him to be a full-time employee. Despite this, he didn’t seek permission from KU before entering the agreement and didn’t notify KU about the employment. He even lied to conceal the employment, moving to China in December 2018 to work full-time at Fuzhou University while falsely telling KU administrators that he was in Europe.

As a KU faculty member, Tao conducted research under contracts between KU and two U.S. government agencies, the Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). He caused KU to submit to DOE and NSF hundreds of thousands of dollars in reimbursement requests for expenditures associated with the grants. Tao repeatedly certified electronic documents indicating he read and understood the federal government and KU’s policies and that he had made all necessary disclosures.

Tao faces up to 20 years in federal prison and a fine up to $250,000 for wire fraud, and up to 10 years and a fine up to $250,000 on each of the program fraud counts. The FBI investigated the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris Oakley for the District of Kansas and Trial Attorney Adam Barry of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Controls Section (CES) are prosecuting the case, with valuable assistance provided by Deputy Chief Benjamin Hawk of CES.

Feng Tao, whose real full name is Feng Tao, was convicted on three counts of wire fraud and one count of false statements. The crime occurred in 2018. Tao is currently facing up to 20 years in federal prison and a fine up to $250,000 for wire fraud, and up to 10 years and a fine up to $250,000 on each of the program fraud counts.

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