Judge tosses most charges against US researcher Franklin Tao, who was accused of hiding China ties
- Three convictions for wire fraud were thrown out, leaving only one for making a false statement on a form
- The case against Franklin Tao was part of the US Justice Department’s now-defunct China Initiative
A US federal judge threw out three of four convictions against a Kansas researcher accused of illegally concealing work he was doing at a Chinese university while working at the University of Kansas, leaving only a conviction for making a false statement on a form.
A jury convicted researcher Feng “Franklin” Tao in April on three counts of wire fraud and one count of false statements. He was accused of not disclosing that he was working for Fuzhou University in China while employed at the Kansas university.
However, US District Judge Julie Robinson ruled that federal prosecutors did not provide sufficient evidence to support the wire fraud convictions. She upheld the making a false statement conviction and denied Tao’s request for a new trial on that count.
The US Attorney’s office in Kansas said on Tuesday it would have no comment on Robinson’s ruling.
Federal prosecutors argued during the trial that Tao concealed his work in China to defraud the University of Kansas, the US Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation. The federal agencies had awarded Tao grants for research projects at Kansas.
Defence lawyers argued that Tao was merely “moonlighting”. They said Tao completed all the research he received grants to conduct in Kansas and that his work in China was not illegal because he was not paid for it.