US jury convicts Harvard professor of lying about Chinese relations

Author: Nate Raymond

BOSTON (Reuters) – A Harvard University professor has been tried in the US on Tuesday for lying about his connection to a China-led recruitment program in a closely watched case in a U.S. investigation into crackdown on Chinese influence.

A federal jury in Boston found Charles Nanber, a prominent nanoscientist and former chairman of the Harvard Department of Chemistry, guilty of making false statements to the authorities, making false tax returns and failing to report a Chinese bank account.

The prosecutor said that Lieber, on his way to the Nobel Prize, agreed to become a “strategic scientist” at Wuhan University of Technology in China in 2011 and participated in a Chinese recruitment fund called the Thousand Talents Program.

Prosecutors say China is using the program to hire foreign researchers to share their knowledge with the country. Participation is not a crime, but prosecutors believe Lieber, 62, lied illegally to authorities about his involvement.

Defense attorney Marc Mukasey responded that prosecutors “confused” the evidence to prove Lieber’s guilt, lacked key documents to support their claims, and relied on a “confused” FBI interview with the scientist after his arrest.

Lieber, who is battling cancer, sat without emotion when the court announced the verdict, after nearly three hours of jury deliberation and a six-day trial. Mukasey did not comment outside the court.

Lieber was indicted in January 2020 as part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s “China Initiative” to crack down on alleged economic espionage and robbery in China under the administration of former President Donald Trump.

The administration of President Joe Biden has continued the initiative, although the Department of Justice has said it is reviewing its approach.

Critics say https://www.reuters.com/world/us/stanford-professors-urge-us-end-program-looking-chinese-spies-academia-2021-09-13 harms academic research, Chinese race profile it terrified some researchers and scientists. A Tennessee professor has been acquitted by a judge this year after a failed trial, and prosecutors have dropped charges against six other investigators.

The prosecutor said Lieber lied about his role in the recruitment program in response to questions from the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. National Institutes of Health that he was given $ 15 million in research grants.

In an interview with FBI agents after his arrest, Lieber said he was “younger and more stupid” when he joined Wuhan University and believed his cooperation would boost his acceptance.

Through that school, she was paid up to $ 50,000 a month plus $ 158,000 in living expenses, and received half of her salary in cash and half in deposits in a Chinese bank account, the prosecutor said.

But they said Lieber had not reported his salary on his 2013 and 2014 income tax returns and had not reported a bank account for two years.