A Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor and nanotechnology expert has been charged with failing to disclose to the US Department of Energy millions of dollars in funding he allegedly received from China, the latest in a slew of similar cases.
Chen Gang (陳剛), 56, a naturalized US citizen from China, was charged with wire fraud, making a false statement in a tax return and failing to disclose a foreign bank account, the US Department of Justice said.
In a court appearance by videoconference, a federal judge in Boston on Thursday said that he anticipated requiring Chen to post a secured bond “in the neighborhood” of US$1 million.
The case follows a “China Initiative” launched by the justice department in 2018 to investigate and prosecute cases of economic espionage intended to benefit China.
The program has resulted in dozens of prosecutions for hacking, and for data and trade secret theft.
Federal prosecutors last year filed a series of such cases across the US, an election year during which US President Donald Trump blamed China for the COVID-19 pandemic, continued a trade dispute and accused Chinese technology companies of spying on Americans.
The effort has extended into this year.
A senior NASA scientist on Wednesday admitted to lying about his participation in a program the US says was designed to siphon intellectual property to China.
“To put this threat into perspective, we have now reached the point where the FBI is opening a new China-related counterintelligence case about every 10 hours and of the 5,000 active counterintelligence cases the FBI has, nearly half of them are related to China,” Joseph Bonavolonta, the FBI’s special agent in charge, said at a news conference on Thursday.
He was quick to add that “we are not suggesting that all, or even most, Chinese students, professors and researchers are somehow up to no good.”
Robert Fisher, a lawyer for Chen, did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment on the charges. MIT was not accused of any wrongdoing.
Chen is director of the MIT Pappalardo Micro and Nano Engineering Laboratories and the Solid-State Solar Thermal Energy Conversion Center, prosecutors said in a statement.
Since 2013, his MIT research has been funded by more than US$19 million in government grants, but Chen has also held various positions designed to promote China’s technological and scientific development, prosecutors said.
Chen has provided expertise, sometimes directly to Chinese government officials, and often in exchange for financial compensation, according to an affidavit by an FBI agent involved in the case.
Since 2013, Chen has received US$29 million in funding from overseas, including US$19 million from the Southern University of Science and Technology in China, prosecutors said.
At Chen’s initial court appearance, Magistrate Judge Donald Cabell set conditions for Chen’s release. He restricted travel for Chen and his wife to Massachusetts, and confirmed that the couple’s passports had been seized by the US government during its searches.
Cabell said that he hopes to complete the terms of the bond in the next few days.
Lawyers for the government had suggested Chen be ordered to wear a monitoring device.
“I do not find that Mr Chen poses a risk of flight,” Cabell said.
Chen has two children, including one who attends MIT, Fisher told the court.
Chen’s field of research, nanotechnology, has been identified in China’s 13th “Five-Year Plan” as “a particular area of interest” to Beijing, the affidavit said.
His nanoengineering group at MIT focuses on “nanoscale transport and energy conversion phenomena,” which has applications in energy storage, conversion and utilization.
FBI agents arrested Chen on Thursday at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and immediately executed three search warrants, Bonavolonta said, one at Chen’s home and two at MIT.
Since 2012, Chen has entered into at least four contracts “with various entities within or closely affiliated with” the Chinese government, including the National Natural Science Foundation of China and Zhongguancun Development Group, prosecutors said.
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