A Harvard professor has been convicted of economic and academic espionage

 

 A Harvard University professor accused of lying about his links to a Chinese recruitment scheme that secretly paid him $ 50,000 a month from Wuhan University has been convicted by a federal jury in the United States, according to the British daily The Times. 

Charles Lieber, a former head of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard, pleaded not guilty to two counts of false tax returns, two counts of making false statements and two counts of failing to report to a foreign bank account China.

 However, jurors found him guilty of all charges after five days of testifying in an economic and academic espionage case in Boston Federal Court. Liber, 62, who has cancer, did not show emotion when the verdict was announced, the publication notes.

Liber was arrested last January and accused of lying to US government agents about money he received as part of a Chinese scheme to recruit scientists and academics with knowledge of foreign technology and intellectual property.

 Prosecutors say Liber, who was ranked by Thomson Reuters as the world's most important chemist for the decade between 2000 and 2010, lied about his role in Beijing's Thousand Talents program in response to inquiries from the Ministry of Defense. The United States and the US National Institutes of Health, which awarded him $ 15 million for research.

Liber told FBI agents that he was "younger and stupider" when he collaborated with Wuhan University of Technology and believed the partnership would help boost his recognition.

 The university agreed to pay him up to $ 50,000 a month, as well as $ 158,000 in living expenses paid in cash and deposits in a Chinese bank account, prosecutors added. Liber, along with employees of the Chinese Institute, opened an account with a Chinese bank during a trip to Wuhan in 2012.

In return for the payments, Liber agreed to publish articles, organize international conferences and apply for patents on behalf of the Chinese university.

The case is one of the most notorious, coming from the US Department of Justice's "China Initiative" against Chinese espionage. It was launched in 2018, during the term of Donald Trump.

 "He lied about the money he was paid and hid his Chinese bank account from the United States. The jurors followed the evidence and the law to a fair verdict, "said Nathaniel R. Mendel, prosecutor in the case.

Liber's sentence will be handed down at a later date. The charge of making and recording false tax returns carries a penalty of up to three years in prison and a $ 100,000 fine.