Retired Harvard University chemist Charles Lieber asked a federal judge in Massachusetts to spare him from prison after he was convicted in 2021 of lying to the US government about his role in a Chinese program designed to recruit scientific talent.
(Bloomberg) — Retired Harvard University chemist Charles Lieber asked a federal judge in Massachusetts to spare him from prison after he was convicted in 2021 of lying to the US government about his role in a Chinese program designed to recruit scientific talent.
In a filing Friday to US District Judge Rya Zobel in Boston, Lieber’s lawyer said the onetime chair of Harvard’s Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department is remorseful and that his reputation has already been ruined by his Chinese ties. The letter also cites Lieber’s battle with cancer, for which there is no cure.
“Travel to China — which amounted, in total, to no more than a couple of weeks — has shattered his entire life,” defense attorney Mark Mukasey wrote. “At 64 years old, Professor Lieber prays to be able to live out whatever time he has left, at home.”
Mukasey asked the judge for one of four possible sentences, ranging from a one-year probation to a sentence of six months of home detention, to be followed by a year of supervised release.
Prosecutors have yet to provide their recommendation. Lieber is scheduled to be sentenced on April 26.
Lieber was convicted of two counts of 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 to further China’s scientific development. He also was convicted of filing a false income tax return and failing to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts with the IRS.
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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, Lieber was paid $50,000 a month and about $150,000 in living expenses. He was also awarded over $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.
Lieber’s sentencing memorandum sought to rebut what it called several “erroneous assumptions” and “misguided interpretations” of the case against him, saying that he hadn’t been charged with espionage or grant fraud. The letter also said Lieber wasn’t employed by the Chinese government, that his research wasn’t being questioned, and that it wasn’t a crime to be a member of the Thousand Talents program.
“Professor Lieber hopes the Court will assess the complete picture of who he is and how he has lived his life and will have mercy on him,” his lawyers said.
The case is USA v. Lieber, 1:20-cr-10111-RWZ, US District Court, District of Massachusetts (Boston).
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