Ex-Harvard Professor Sentenced, Fined for Lying About China Ties

A former Harvard University scientist, Charles Lieber, has been sentenced to two years of supervised release and ordered to pay over $83,000 in restitution and fines for concealing his ties to China’s state-run talent recruitment program. Lieber, who formerly chaired Harvard’s department of chemistry and chemical biology, was found guilty in December 2021 of six felony counts, including making false statements and tax fraud. He was also sentenced to two days in jail, which he had already served after his arrest, and will spend the first six months of his supervised release in home confinement.

Prosecutors had argued for a harsher sentence, including three months in prison, one year of supervised release, and a $150,000 fine, but Lieber’s attorney cited his client’s decade-long battle with blood cancer and asked the judge to spare him prison time. The judge ultimately decided on a lighter sentence, which Lieber’s attorney said they were satisfied with.

Pattern of Deceit

Lieber’s case is among the highest profile from the Justice Department’s now-abolished China Initiative, which was started in 2018 to curb economic espionage efforts from China. Lieber had engaged in China’s Thousand Talents program, which lures global talent to promote China’s scientific and economic development, while also receiving millions of federal funding to work on sensitive U.S. research. He had quietly retired from Harvard in February, two years after being placed on administrative leave after facing charges in 2020.

His 2012 contract with the Wuhan University of Technology promised a monthly salary of up to $50,000, and Lieber made multiple trips to the Chinese school between 2012 and 2015, receiving up to $20,000 in cash each time. He also agreed to establish the “Joint WUT-Harvard Joint Nano Key Laboratory” at the Chinese school and serve as a co-director without consulting Harvard.