Arrest of Harvard Professor Reinforces Heightened Scrutiny of Federal Grant Recipients with Connections to China
On January 28, 2020, Charles Lieber, Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University, was arrested and charged in connection with aiding the People’s Republic of China. Dr. Lieber, who served as the Principal Investigator of the Lieber Research Group at Harvard, specializes in nanoscience and has received more than $15,000,000 in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Department of Defense (DOD). The charge stems from fraudulent disclosures allegedly made by Dr. Lieber to federal grantors regarding his financial connections to the Chinese government. The criminal prosecution of Dr. Lieber offers a couple of key lessons for federal grantees.
