Former Harvard professor convicted of lying to federal investigators about his ties to China

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A former Harvard University professor convicted of lying to federal investigators about his ties to a Chinese-run science recruitment program and failing to pay taxes on payments from a Chinese university is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday.

Charles Lieber, 64, the former chair of Harvard’s department of chemistry and chemical biology, was convicted in December 2021 of two counts of filing false tax returns, two counts of making false statements and two counts of failing to file reports for a foreign bank account in China.

Prosecutors in court documents recommended three months in prison, a year of probation, a $150,000 fine and restitution to the Internal Revenue Service of $33,600.

Lieber’s attorneys asked that their client, who no longer works at Harvard and has a form of incurable blood cancer, be spared prison time and get a probationary sentence or home confinement instead.

Prosecutors said Lieber knowingly hid his involvement in China’s Thousand Talents Plan — a program designed to recruit people with knowledge of foreign technology and intellectual property to China — to protect his career and reputation.

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Lieber denied his involvement during questioning from U.S. authorities, including the National Institutes of Health, which had provided him with millions of dollars in research funding, prosecutors said.

Lieber also concealed his income from the Chinese program on his U.S. tax returns, including $50,000 a month from the Wuhan University of Technology, some of which was paid to him in $100 bills in brown paper packaging, according to prosecutors.

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