A former Harvard professor was sentenced to six months of house arrest Wednesday for lying about his connection to a Chinese recruitment program and lying about receiving money from the Wuhan University of Technology (WUT).
Charles Lieber, 64, previously the chairman of Harvard’s chemistry program and well-known for his contributions to nanoscience, was convicted in December 2021 in Boston, according to a press release from the Department of Justice.
In addition to the house arrest, he was sentenced to two days in prison and a $50,000 fine, as well as two years of supervised release and an IRS restitution of $33,600.
Lieber conducted research for the Department of Defense and the National Institutes of Health that totaled more than $15 million.
He became a “Strategic Scientist” at WUT, and as part of a Chinese program called the Thousand Talents Plan, he attempted to recruit people to advance the goals of the Chinese government.
U.S. District Judge Rya Zobel announced the decision that spared Lieber from additional prison time as another piece in the Department of Justice’s “China Initiative,” part of a crackdown on Chinese influence on academic research in the United States, which was alleged to be stealing secrets and committing economic espionage.
According to the original charging document, WUT allegedly paid Lieber $50,000 per month, living expenses of approximately $158,000, and gave him more than $1.5 million to establish a research lab at WUT. “In return, Lieber was obligated to work for WUT ‘not less than nine months a year’ by ‘declaring international cooperation projects, cultivating young teachers and Ph.D. students, organizing international conference[s], applying for patents and publishing articles in the name of’ WUT.”
The China Initiative, launched by former President Donald Trump in 2018, was shut down by President Biden in February 2022 following several failed prosecutions and the fear that the initiative contributed to anti-Asian sentiment.
