Dr. Charles Lieber was arrested last year (January 28, 2020) by the Department of Justice, alongside two Chinese researchers, for three separate China related cases. One of these Chinese nationals, Yanqing Ye, is both a student at Boston University, and a lieutenant of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army. The other, Zaosong Zheng, was supposedly a cancer researcher, who attempted to smuggle vials of SARS and MERS strains to China, through Boston’s Logan Airport.
Whist also receiving grants from NIH and the Department of Defense, Dr. Lieber received $50,000 a month from China for “living expenses”, and a lump sum of $1.5 million for his work with the Wuhan Institute of Technology. In video recordings between Lieber and the FBI after his arrest, he said “Money is a big temptation. That’s one of the things that China uses to seduce people.”
He was found guilty of lying about his Chinese ties, and was convicted on six counts. These include two counts of making and subscribing a false income tax return, two counts of making false statements to federal authorities, and two counts of failing to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts with the Internal Revenue Service. His sentencing date has not yet been scheduled.
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