Former Harvard University chemist Charles Lieber was ordered to serve six months of home confinement — avoiding jail time — for lying to US authorities about his role in a Chinese government program to recruit scientists and develop research.
(Bloomberg) — Former Harvard University chemist Charles Lieber was ordered to serve six months of home confinement — avoiding jail time — for lying to US authorities about his role in a Chinese government program to recruit scientists and develop research.
US District Judge Rya Zobel sentenced Lieber Wednesday in Boston, where the onetime chair of Harvard’s Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department was convicted by a jury in December 2021. Lieber, 64, is a leader in the field of nanoscience and has since retired after three decades at the school.
The scientist faced 10 to 16 months behind bars under sentencing guidelines for lying to federal authorities about his affiliation with Wuhan University of Technology and China’s Thousand Talents Program — a recruitment pipeline designed to attract overseas researchers. He also filed a false income tax return and failed to report his foreign bank accounts with the Internal Revenue Service.
Lieber, who specialized in the study and development of structures on the scale of atoms and molecules, had asked the judge not to sentence him to time in jail. His lawyer, Marc Mukasey, said his client’s “reputation is in tatters” because of his work in China and now has an incurable form of cancer, which makes him a “sitting duck for disease” if he’s incarcerated.
“He is not the greedy villain the government talks about,” Mukasey said. “Whatever money he got legitimately, or illegitimately, most of it went to philanthropy, or caring for his children.”
The judge called Lieber’s crime “a very serious offense,” but didn’t offer any explanation for her decision to keep him out of prison. She also ordered the chemist to pay a $150,000 fine and restitution to the IRS of $33,600.
Prosecutors agreed Lieber’s “significant” health issues justified a lesser sentence than the guidelines, but argued 90 days was justified punishment for tax fraud and “egregiously” lying to the government. Lieber’s cancer is in remission and doesn’t require extensive medical care, so “he can safely be incarcerated for 90 days,” Assistant US Attorney Jason A. Casey argued.
$50,000 a Month
Lieber was hired as a “strategic scientist” at Wuhan University and participated in the talent-recruitment program from at least 2012 to 2015, the US Justice Department said. During that time, he was paid $50,000 a month, got about $150,000 in living expenses, and was awarded more than $1.5 million to conduct a research lab at the university.
According to the DOJ, Lieber lied to federal authorities about these affiliations and didn’t disclose the income to the IRS on his tax returns. He later failed to disclose that he opened a foreign bank account in Wuhan, which was where the university deposited portions of his salary.
“I am extremely sorry for dragging my family through this ordeal,” Lieber said in court before he was sentenced. In reference to his crimes, he said that “focusing on science and helping people” had led him to ignore other matters. “I regret I did not provide a more complete account of my association,” he said.
A 2018 report by the US National Intelligence Council called programs like the Thousand Talents Program a way to “facilitate the legal and illicit transfer of US technology, intellectual property and know-how” to China.
Lieber’s arrest in January 2020 was part of the Justice Department’s China Initiative, a Trump-era national security program aimed at cracking down on espionage. The program has since halted after claims it discriminated against people of Chinese descent.
Read More: Harvard Arrest Ups the US Ante on China as Security Threat
The case is USA v. Lieber, 1:20-cr-10111-RWZ, US District Court, District of Massachusetts (Boston).
(Updates with comment from judge, Lieber.)
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