Harvard's Dr. Charles Lieber Arrested for Ties To WuHan and CoronaVirus
Dr. Charles Lieber is the Chair of The Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard.
BOSTON (AP) Jan.28, 2020 — A Harvard University professor charged with lying about his role in a Chinese talent recruitment program was released from custody Thursday and ordered to post a $1 million cash bond.
Lieber is required to give up his Passport and disclose any foreign bank accounts and is barred from talking to any potential victims or witnesses in the case, among other restrictions. His wife will also hand over her passport after prosecutors raised concerns that she could move cash to another country.
Prosecutors say Lieber agreed to conduct research, publish articles and apply for patents on behalf of China's Wuhan University of Technology in exchange for $50,000 per month and about $150,000 in living expenses. He also received $1.5 million to establish a research lab at the Chinese university, authorities said.
Sauce: https://www.foxbusiness.com/money/1m-bond-set-for-harvard-professor-accused-of-hiding-ties-to-china
From Justice.gov:
Unbeknownst to Harvard University beginning in 2011, Lieber became a “Strategic Scientist” at Wuhan University of Technology (WUT) in China''' and was a contractual participant in China’s Thousand Talents Plan from in or about 2012 to 2017.
Under the terms of Lieber’s three-year Thousand Talents contract, WUT paid Lieber $50,000 USD per month, living expenses of up to 1,000,000 Chinese Yuan (approximately $158,000 USD at the time) and awarded him more than $1.5 Million to establish a research lab at WUT.
Lieber's student Zaosong Zeng:
In August 2018, Zheng entered the United States on a J-1 visa and conducted cancer-cell research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston from Sept. 4, 2018, to Dec. 9, 2019.
It is alleged that on Dec. 9, 2019, Zheng stole 21 vials of Biological Research and attempted to smuggle them out of the United States aboard a flight destined for China.
Federal officers at Logan Airport discovered the vials hidden in a sock inside one of Zheng’s bags, and not properly packaged.
It is alleged that initially, Zheng lied to officers about the contents of his luggage, but later admitted he had stolen the vials from a lab at Beth Israel.
Sauce: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/harvard-university-professo.-and-two-chinese-nationals-charged-three-separate-china-related
Dr. Charles M. Lieber, age 60, is Jewish.
In 2012, Lieber was awarded Israel's Wolf Prize in Chemistry.
He is known for his contributions to the synthesis, assembly and characterization of Nanoscale materials and Nanodevices, the application of Nanoelectronic devices in Biology.
Sauce: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_M._Lieber