Boston: Harvard University professor assigned to hide his bond with a Chinese-managed recruitment program was found guilty of all counts on Tuesday.
Charles Lieber, 62, former Chairman of the Chemical and Biology of Chemistry Harvard, has claimed to be innocent for two charges of false tax archiving, two charges of making false statements, and two accusations failed to submit a foreign bank report for foreign bank accounts in China.
The jury discussed about two hours and 45 minutes before announcing a verdict after five days of testimony at the Federal Court of Boston.
Lieber’s defense lawyer Marc Mukasey argued that the prosecutor was less than the accusation.
He stated that investigators did not keep their interview record with Lieber before his arrest.
He argued that prosecutors would not be able to prove that Lieber acted “intentionally, intentionally, or intentionally, or that he made a fake material statement.” Mukasey also emphasized Lieber was not charged illegally transferring technology or property rights information to China.
The prosecutors argued that Lieber, who was arrested in January, deliberately hid his involvement in the planned Talents Talents – a program designed to recruit people with knowledge of foreign technology and intellectual property to China – to protect his career and reputation.
Lieber denied his involvement during the question of the US authorities, including the National Institutes of Health, who had given him millions of dollars in research funding, the prosecutor said.
Lieber also hides his income from the Chinese program, including $ 50,000 a month from Wuhan University of Technology, up to $ 158,000 in living expenses and more than $ 1.5 million grants, according to prosecutors.
In return, they said, Lieber agreed to publish articles, regulate international conferences and apply for patents on behalf of the Chinese University.
This case is one of the highest profiles to come from the US Justice Department called “China’s initiative.” The efforts launched in 2018 to curb economic espionage from China have faced criticism that he endangers the research and number of academics to create a racial profile of Chinese researchers.
Hundreds of faculty members at Stanford, Yale, Berkeley, Princeton, Temple and other prominent universities have signed a letter to our Attorney General Merrick Garland calling him to end the initiative.
The academics said the effort endangered the competitiveness of the nation in research and technology and had had a cold effect to recruit foreign scholars.
The letters also complained of investigations having researchers from China targeted by disproportionately.
Lieber has been paid administration from Harvard since being arrested in January 2020.