The former Chair of Harvard University’s Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department Dr. Charles Lieber was convicted by a federal jury on Tuesday for lying about his ties to the Chinese Communist Party's "Thousand Talents Program" and work with the Wuhan University of Technology, including hiding income he received from the Chinese university.
Lieber's conviction comes after being indicted by a federal grand jury in June, as Katie reported here. Jurors in a federal court in Boston spent six days deliberating before convicting him on six charges: two counts of making false statements to federal authorities, two counts of making a subscribing a false income tax return, and two counts of failing to file reports of foreign bank and financials accounts with the IRS.
A release from the Department of Justice explains Lieber's activity with Chinese Community Party programs and institutions:
Lieber served as the Principal Investigator of the Lieber Research Group at Harvard University, which received more than $15 million in federal research grants between 2008 and 2019. Unbeknownst to his employer, Harvard University, Lieber became a “Strategic Scientist” at WUT and, later, a contractual participant in China’s Thousand Talents Plan from at least 2012 through 2015. China’s Thousand Talents Plan is one of the most prominent talent recruitment plans designed to attract, recruit and cultivate high-level scientific talent in furtherance of China’s scientific development, economic prosperity and national security.
Under the terms of Lieber’s three-year Thousand Talents contract, WUT paid Lieber a salary of up to $50,000 per month, living expenses of up to $150,000 and awarded him more than $1.5 million to establish a research lab at WUT. In 2018 and 2019, Lieber lied to federal authorities about his involvement in the Thousand Talents Plan and his affiliation with WUT.
In tax years 2013 and 2014, Lieber earned income from WUT in the form of salary and other payments made to him pursuant to the Strategic Scientist and Thousand Talents Contracts, which he did not disclose to the IRS on his federal income tax returns. Lieber, together with WUT officials, opened a bank account at a Chinese bank during a trip to Wuhan in 2012. Thereafter, between at least 2013 and 2015, WUT periodically deposited portions of Lieber’s salary into that account. U.S. taxpayers are required to report the existence of any foreign bank account that holds more than $10,000 at any time during a given year by the filing an FBAR with the IRS. Lieber failed to file FBARs for the years 2014 and 2015.
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So Harvard University, full of supposed geniuses, didn't know that one of their own was being bankrolled by Chinese Communists at a rate of $50,000 per month plus $150,000 for "living expenses" and handed more than $1.5 million to help the Wuhan University of Technology create a "research lab." Right. Lieber basically got caught because the IRS wanted him to pay the piper for the commie bucks he didn't report? "Higher" education has done it again.
If Lieber didn't think there were any issues with his involvement with the CCP, it follows that he would not have hid his income made through China's program that seeks to bring foreign experts into its institutions. He also probably wouldn't have opened and then hid a bank account in Wuhan. According to evidence presented during Lieber's trial, including recordings of his interview with the F.B.I., being a prominent Harvard appointee wasn't enough in his wish to be "recognized" and his desire "to win a Nobel Prize." All this despite already being recognized in his field and landing millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars in the form of grants from the National Institutes of Health and Department of Defense.
The DOJ says that U.S. Senior District Court Judge Rya W. Zobel "will sentence Lieber at a later date that has not yet been scheduled." As the DOJ outlines, Lieber is facing up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of $250,000 for the charge of making false statements; up to three years in prison, one year of supervised release, and a $100,000 fine for the charge of making and subscribing false income tax returns; and up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of $250,000 for failing to file a report of foreign bank and financial account with the IRS.
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