Harvard Chemistry Professor With Wuhan Links Found Guilty Of Lying About Receiving Cash From China

Harvard University chemistry and engineering professor Charles Lieber was found guilty of lying about his ties to the Chinese government.

Last year, Lieber was indicted and charged with making false statements to federal authorities about his participation in a Chinese-run program that seeks to lure American scientists to advance the communist nation’s scientific development.

On Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reported:

Mr. Lieber, who holds joint appointments in Harvard University’s chemistry and engineering departments and is a renowned expert in the field of nanoscience, was accused of lying to government investigators about his participation in the Chinese government’s Thousand Talents program aimed at wooing foreign experts. He also was charged with failing to disclose cash payments from the program on his income tax returns and concealing the existence of a Chinese bank account.

The verdict, returned after less than three hours of deliberations, marks a stunning fall for Mr. Lieber, who came under scrutiny by federal investigators over an academic partnership with the Wuhan University of Technology that dates back a decade. Prosecutors showed documentary evidence that Mr. Lieber had signed a Thousand Talents agreement with Wuhan that paid him hundreds of thousands of dollars — some in cash and some deposited into a Chinese bank account.