Recent Enforcement Actions

The following sections contain summaries of and links to recent US Department of Justice enforcement actions taken against researchers that fit under the broad umbrella of undue foreign influence. In most cases the principle charges (e.g., false statements and fraud) stem from a lack of transparency by researchers in institutional disclosures, grant applications (i.e., failing to disclose foreign affiliations and/or support), and visa applications. 

    Charges and Actions

    Note:  A charge or indictment is not evidence of guilt. A defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government's burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

    • 2/23/22: U.S. Department of Justice Ends Controversial Probe of Researchers' China Ties. Matthew Olsen, assistant attorney general for national security, announced the end of the program saying it "fueled a narrative of intolerance and bias." Instead he said a broader approach will be used to protect know-how and intellectual property from adversarial foreign governments.

    • 4/21/21: Mathematics Professor and University Researcher Indicted for Grant Fraud. The professor is alleged to have fraudulently obtained $151,099 in NSF grant funds by concealing support he was receiving from the Chinese government and Shenzhen University. The indictment indicates that he was funded for overlapping research proposals by both NSF and the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, China, and that he failed to disclose an employment relationship with Shenzhen University when applying for NSF funding through Southern Illinois University - Carbondale. 

    • 1/14/21: MIT Professor Arrested and Charged with Grant Fraud. A professor and researcher at MIT was charged and arrested in connection with failing to disclose contracts, appointments and awards from various entities in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). According to prosecutors, Gang Chen's activities for the PRC included, but were not limited to, acting as an "overseas expert" at the request of the PRC consulate office in NY and participating in at least two PRC Talent Programs. He allegedly failed to disclose information about his ongoing affiliations with the PRC as required when he applied for and received a DOE grant. 1/20/22: Update - Statement from U.S. Attorney Rachael S. Rollins on the Dismissal of the Gang Chen Case.

    • 8/31/20: Chinese National Charged with Destroying Hard Drive During FBI Investigation into the Possible Transfer of Sensitive Software to China. A Chinese national and researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles has been arrested on federal charges of destroying evidence to obstruct an FBI investigation after he was observed throwing a damaged hard drive into a dumpster outside his apartment.

    • 8/28/20: University of Virginia Researcher Charged with Theft of Trade Secrets and Computer Intrusion. A Chinese national conducting research was arrested and charged via criminal complaint with accessing a computer without authorization, or exceeding authorization to obtain information from a protected computer, and theft of trade secrets.  

    • 8/24/20: NASA Researcher Arrested for False Statements and Wire Fraud in Relation to China's Talents Program.  A Texas A&M University Professor is alleged to have willfully obscured his affiliations and collaborations with a Chinese University and at least one Chinese-owned company,  The terms NASA award funding the researchers work prohibited participation, collaboration or coordination with China, any Chinese-owned company or any Chinese University, according to the charges.

    • 7/29/20: University of Arkansas Professor Indicted for Wire Fraud and Passport Fraud.  The professor is alleged to have failed to disclose his financial and other ties to companies and institutions in China to the University of Arkansas and to U.S. government agencies, despite an obligation to do so. The wire fraud alleged in this case affected not only the University of Arkansas, but also the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the United States Air Force among other US government agencies. 

    • 7/23/20: Researchers Charged with Visa Fraud After Lying About Their Work for China's People's Liberation Army.  Four individuals have been charged with visa fraud for lying about their status as members of the People’s Republic of China’s military forces (PLA), while in the United States conducting research.  Three of these individuals have been arrested and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is seeking the fourth who is a fugitive from justice currently being harbored at the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco.

    • 7/9/20: Researcher Charged with Illegally Using U.S. Grant Funds to Develop Scientific Expertise in China. A rheumatology professor at the Ohio State University has been ordered held without bond to face charges of grant fraud and making false statements.  The charges stem from what has been described as a sophisticated scheme to use $4.1 million in NIH grant funds to develop expertise in China and failure to disclose employment in China as part of a Chinese Talent Plan.

    • 5/14/20: Former Cleveland Clinic Employee and Chinese "Thousand Talents" Participant Arrested for Wire Fraud.  The employee is charged with false claims and wire fraud related to more than $3.6 million in grant funding that the researcher and his group received from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The criminal compliant alleges that the employee knowingly failure to disclose an affiliation/position with Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST); grant funds from the National Natural Science Foundation of China for some of the same research funded by NIH; and $3 million in research support to enhance facilities and operations at HUST as part of his participation in the Thousand Talents Program.

    • 5/11/20: University of Arkansas Professor Arrested for Wire Fraud. Acting US Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas, David Clay Fowlkes, and FBI Special Agent in Charge, Diane Upchurch, recently announced the arrest of a University of Arkansas professor on a single wire fraud charge. The professor is accused of making materially false representations, by failing to make required disclosures of close ties to the Chinese government and Chinese companies, to the institution and NASA in order to receive NASA grant funds.  

    • 2/27/20:  Researcher At University of Tennessee Arrested For Wire Fraud And Making False Statements About Affiliation With a Chinese University.  The charges in this case stem from the researcher's alleged failure to disclose a relationship with the Beijing to the university.

    • 1/28/20: Harvard University Professor and Two Chinese Nationals Charged in Three Separate China Related Cases. The professor and department chair was arrested and charged by criminal complaint with one count of making a materially false, fictitious and fraudulent statement. One Chinese national was charged in absentia with one count each of visa fraud, making false statements, acting as an agent of a foreign government, and conspiracy; the other was indicted on one count each of smuggling goods (21 vials of biological research materials) from the US and making false, fictitious or fraudulent statements.

    • 9/9/19:  U.S. charges Chinese professor in latest shot at Huawei. A professor at a Chinese university who was accused of stealing trade secrets for Huawei as part of a civil lawsuit now faces a criminal theft charge. At the time of the alleged theft, Bo Mao was an associate professor and Xiamen University; he later became a visiting professor at a US university but that was prior to being charged.

    • 8/21/19:  University of Kansas Researcher Indicted for Fraud for Failing to Disclose Conflict of Interest with Chinese University. A UK researcher funded by the National Science Foundation and US Department of Energy contracts has been indicted on one count of wire fraud and three counts of program fraud.  The counts stem from his for receiving salary support from his federal awards while he was employed by a Chinese institution without disclosing, as was required, that employment relationship to UK or his federal sponsors.

    Acquittals, Convictions, and Settlements

    • 4/7/2022: A federal jury convicted Feng (Franklin) Tao, a University of Kansas professor, on three counts of wire fraud and one count of false statements for deliberately concealing employment by a government-affiliated university in China, while working on federally-funded research at KU in violation of sponsor and institutional requirements (see DOJ press release on the conviction). According to news reports (ABC News and Fox News) the judge is weighing a defense motion to dismiss the case prior to sentencing. The DOJ press release of the indictment was published 8/21/2019.

    • 9/9/2021: Judge Thomas Varlan issued a memorandum opinion and order acquitting Anming Hu on all charges. Hu, a former researcher at the University of Tennessee Knoxville, was the first academic tried under the China Initiative. The acquittal came after Hu's jury trial resulted in a mistrial earlier this summer.  

    • 5/14/21: University Researcher Sentenced to Prison for Lying on Grant Applications to Develop Scientific Expertise for China. Song Guo Zheng, 58, a professor of internal medicine who led a team conducting autoimmune research at The Ohio State University and Pennsylvania State University, was sentenced to 37 months in prison for making false statements to federal authorities as part of an immunology research fraud scheme. Zheng pleaded guilty last November and admitted he lied on applications in order to use approximately $4.1 million in grants from NIH to develop China’s expertise in rheumatology and immunology.  Zheng was arrested in May 2020 in Anchorage, Alaska, as he prepared to board a charter flight in order to flee to China. He was carrying three large bags, one small suitcase and a briefcase containing two laptops, three cell phones, several USB drives, several silver bars, expired Chinese passports for his family, deeds for property in China and other items. 

    • 4/20/21: Hospital Researcher Sentenced to Prison for Conspiring to Steal Trade Secrets and Sell to China. Yu Zhou, 51, of Dublin, Ohio, pleaded guilty in December 2020 to stealing scientific trade secrets related to exosomes and exosome isolation from Nationwide Children’s Hospital’s Research Institute for his own personal financial gain. Zhou was sentenced to 33 months in prison.  Zhou also conspired to commit wire fraud with his wife, Li Chen (see 7/30/20 entry, below). As part of their convictions, the couple will forfeit approximately $1.45 million, 500,000 shares of common stock of Avalon GloboCare Corp. and 400 shares of common stock of GenExosome Technologies Inc. They were also ordered to pay $2.6 million in restitution.

    • 11/12/20: University Researcher Pleads Guilty to Lying on Grant Applications to Develop Scientific Expertise for China. A rheumatology professor who worked at Ohio State and Pennsylvania State Universities pleaded guilty to making materially false statements in federal grant applications, a crime punishable by up to five years in prison.

    • 7/30/20: Researcher Pleaded Guilty to Conspiring to Steal Scientific Trade Secrets from Ohio Children's Hospital to Sell in China.  A researchers at the Nationwide Children's Hospital Research Institute has has admitted that she abused the trust placed in her by Nationwide to establish a company in China for her own financial gain. She admitted to stealing scientific trade secrets related to exosomes and exosome isolation research.  Her husband, also a researcher at Nationwide, is an alleged co-conspirator. As part of her guilty plea, the researcher has agreed to forfeit approximately $1.4 million, 500,000 shares of common stock of Avalon GloboCare Corp, and 400 shares of common stock of GenExosome Technologies, Inc.

    • 5/11/20: Former Emory University Professor and Chinese "Thousand Talents" Participant Convicted and Sentenced for Filing a False Tax Return. The professor pleaded guilty to a criminal information charged for filing a false tax return.  He worked overseas at Chinese universities as part of the Thousand Talents Program but did report any of his foreign income on his federal tax returns.

    • 3/10/20:  Former West Virginia University Professor Pleads Guilty to Fraud That Enabled Him to Participate in the Peoples Republic of China's "Thousand Talents Plan."  James Lewis was a tenured professor in WVU's physics department specializing in molecular reactions used in coal conversion technologies, who in July 2017 entered into a contract of employment with the PRC through it's "Global Experts 1000 Talents Plan."  Lewis pled guilty to one charge of "Federal Program Fraud" for defrauding WVU into giving him leave so that he could fulfill his competing obligations to a Chinese institution which he hid from the university.

    • 12/19/19:  U.S. Reaches Settlement on Undisclosed Chinese Funding of Scientists.  The Van Andel Research Institute (VARI) in Michigan has reached an agreement with the Department of Justice to pay $5.5 million to resolve false claims allegations related to its failure to disclose Chinese government grants provided to two VARI researchers in grant applications and progress reports submitted to the National Institutes of Health.