Charles Lieber, a Harvard University professor who formerly chaired the school’s chemistry and chemical biology department, was found guilty on Tuesday of two counts of making false statements to federal authorities in relation to a Chinese government recruitment program he was involved with, according to the Department of Justice.
Lieber was also found guilty of two counts of making and subscribing a false income tax return, as well as two charges of failing to file reports of a foreign bank in China and financial accounts with the IRS.
“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,” a DOJ press release reads.
“Unbeknownst to his employer, Harvard University, Lieber became a ‘Strategic Scientist’ at WUT [Wuhan University of Technology] 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.”
The DOJ further noted that under a three-year Thousand Talents contrac, 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, he lied to authorities about his role in the Thousand Talents Plan and his affiliation with WUT.
The Department said of Lieber’s tax crimes:
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.
The false statements charge comes with a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of $250,000. The tax charges come with up to three years in prison, one year of supervised release, and a $100,000 fine.
The court has yet to set a date for sentencing.
The verdict in the Lieber case comes as the DOJ is taking heat after several charges against ethnic Chinese scientists were dropped.
The five researchers were charged with alleged, undisclosed ties to the People’s Liberation Army. The move came amid vocal concerns by progressive groups about supposed racial-profiling by the Justice Department against Asians.
Discreet ties to Communist China have become commonplace in many positions of influence and authority.
Marion Koopmans, a member of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) first team investigating the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, appears to have been removed from the group’s new “effort” to uncover the truth about the virus following reporting that revealed her long ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Numerous studies Koopmans authored over the years were financed by Chinese government entities.
Similarly, fellow World Health Organization (WHO) researcher Peter Daszak, whose Wuhan Institute of Virology collaborations were funded by Anthony Fauci, was removed from Lancet’s COVID-19 commission following a number of exposés by The National Pulse revealing Daszak’s work with the Chinese Communist Party.
The New American has also reported on the case of Tiana Epps-Johnson, founder of the Center for Tech and Civic Life — the election group that received hundreds of millions of dollars from Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg.
Johnson has ties to Harvard University’s Ash Center, which, in turn, has extensive financial and personnel links to China’s ruling regime.
Moreover, the Amistad Project, an election-watchdog group, alleged that CTCL “used the money to illegally inflate turnout in key Democratic swing states as part of this effort.”
If the DOJ actually sentenced to prison everyone in power who has illegal ties to Beijing, there probably wouldn’t be enough room in America’s prisons.
