Politico | US grand jury indicts Harvard professor Charles Lieber for lying about China funding
- Top chemist is accused of concealing links to Wuhan University of Technology
- Lieber allegedly received grants from Defence Department and National Institutes of Health while denying he took part in China’s Thousand Talents Plan
This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Betsy Woodruff Swan on politico.com on June 9, 2020
A grand jury has indicted one of the United States’ foremost chemists, Charles Lieber, on charges of lying to government officials.
Lieber maintains his innocence.
In a January criminal complaint, the Justice Department charged the Harvard scholar with lying to government officials about his work for a Chinese university. But the second step – indictment by grand jury – took months, as the novel coronavirus had stalled grand jury proceedings around the country.
Now, the next step has officially been taken. The charging documents say that Lieber had a relationship with the Wuhan University of Technology (WUT), a prominent Chinese institution, while also chairing Harvard University’s Department of Chemistry.