A top scientist at Harvard University has been indicted by the Justice Department for lying about his involvement with a tech university in Wuhan, China.
The charges were outlined in a news release from the DOJ on Tuesday.
Dr. Charles Lieber, 61, is alleged to have lied about participating in China’s “Thousand Talents Program,” which lures top scientists to China.
Lieber was the former chair of Harvard University’s Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department, and made headlines in 2015 when his work there led to the implantation of “cyborg tissue” into the brains of mice.
Now he faces five years in prison over charges that he lied to Harvard and to the government over his position as “Strategic Scientist” at Wuhan University of Technology in China.
Prosecutors allege that he was paid a salary of up to $50,000 a month to set up the laboratory for the WUT, with additional living expenses paid up to $158,000.
Lieber has maintained his innocence.
Conspiracy theory enthusiasts on social media have suggested that Lieber had something to do with creating and spreading the coronavirus pandemic, but there is no evidence of such a connection.
Also on Tuesday, a report from the Daily Caller News Foundation documented that a Chinese propaganda outlet had paid almost $20 million since 2016 to American media companies.
Here’s more about Lieber’s arrest:
The Arrest of a Harvard Professor
www.youtube.com