US researcher Feng ‘Franklin’ Tao on trial over ‘secret’ China work
- The case is part of the US Justice Department’s China Initiative, which was ended last month following failed prosecutions and public criticism
- Prosecutors say Tao concealed work he did for China’s Fuzhou University when applying for US grants worth hundreds of thousands of dollars
Federal prosecutors alleged on Tuesday that a US researcher illegally kept his work with a Chinese university secret, while the defence countered that he was merely “moonlighting”.
The conflicting portrayals came during opening statements in the trial of Feng “Franklin” Tao in US District Court in Kansas City, Kansas, on charges of wire and programme fraud.
He is accused of not disclosing on conflict-of-interest forms the work he was doing for China while employed at the University of Kansas – something federal prosecutors contend is a scheme to defraud the university, the US Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation.
Tao’s case was part of what the Justice Department called its China Initiative, an effort created in 2018 to crack down on trade secret theft and economic espionage. The department last month ended the initiative following public criticism and failed prosecutions, though officials say they still intend to pursue the threat from China.
Tao, who was born in China and moved to the US in 2002, began working in August 2014 at the University of Kansas’ Centre for Environmentally Beneficial Catalysis, which conducts research on sustainable technology to conserve natural resources and energy.