Charles Lieber, 64, the previous chair of Harvard’s division of chemistry and chemical biology, was convicted in December 2021 of two counts of submitting false tax returns, two counts of creating false statements and two counts of failing to file stories for a international checking account in China.

Lieber was sentenced to time served — the 2 days he spent in jail after his arrest — two years of supervised launch — the primary six months in residence confinement — a $50,000 positive and $33,600 in restitution to the IRS, which has already been paid.

Prosecutors in court docket paperwork had beneficial three months in jail, a 12 months of probation, a $150,000 positive and restitution to the Internal Revenue Service of $33,600.

Lieber’s attorneys had requested that their shopper, who now not works at Harvard and has a type of incurable blood cancer, be spared jail time and get a probationary sentence or residence confinement as a substitute.

Prosecutors stated Lieber knowingly hid his involvement in China’s Thousand Talents Plan — a program designed to recruit folks with data of international know-how and mental property to China — to guard his profession and popularity.

Lieber denied his involvement throughout questioning from U.S. authorities, together with the National Institutes of Health, which had offered him with tens of millions of {dollars} in analysis funding, prosecutors stated.

Lieber additionally hid his earnings from the Chinese program on his U.S. tax returns, together with $50,000 a month from the Wuhan University of Technology, a few of which was paid to him in $100 payments in brown paper packaging, in response to prosecutors.

In change, they are saying, Lieber agreed to publish articles, manage worldwide conferences and apply for patents on behalf of the Chinese college.

Lieber’s case was some of the notable to come back out of the U.S. Department of Justice’s China Initiative, began through the Trump administration in 2018 to curb financial espionage from China, a program that got here beneath criticism and has since been revamped.

Lieber’s attorneys stated their shopper is remorseful and has been punished sufficient due to his broken popularity.

“Professor Lieber is profoundly remorseful for the facts and circumstances that have brought him before this court,” his attorneys stated in court docket paperwork. “He no longer works at Harvard. Travel to China — which amounted, in total, to no more than a couple of weeks — has shattered his entire life. His reputation has been ruined. At 64 years old, Professor Lieber prays to be able to live out whatever time he has left, at home.” Treatment for the most cancers has left him with a severely compromised immune system that places him at larger danger of an infection and requires that he reside in a sterile atmosphere, they stated.

Prosecutors stated though involvement within the Chinese program was not unlawful, Lieber’s “chronic lies” to investigators deserve jail time.

“Lieber purposely — and repeatedly — lied to government agents about his ties to (Wuhan University of Technology) and (Thousand Talents Plan ) in response to direct, unambiguous questions; and he purposely concealed from tax authorities the hundreds of thousands of dollars paid to him by WUT,” prosecutors stated in court docket paperwork.
The relationship between Lieber and the Chinese college had little to do with professional scientific collaboration or discovery however was as a substitute a means for every to burnish their popularity and obtain different targets, which in Lieber’s case included successful a Nobel Prize, prosecutors stated.