Harvard professor charged with hiding his ties to Chinese government and Wuhan lab found guilty on all counts

A Harvard Professor who worked with the NIH and DOD was just federally convicted for covering up his financial ties to Wuhan and the media is barely talking about it

— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) December 22, 2021

A Harvard University professor charged with hiding his ties to a Chinese-run recruitment program was found guilty on all counts Tuesday. 

Charles Lieber, 62, the former chair of Harvard's department of chemistry and chemical biology, had pleaded not guilty to 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. 

The jury deliberated for about two hours and 45 minutes before announcing the verdict following five days of testimony in Boston federal court. Lieber's defense attorney Marc Mukasey had argued that prosecutors lacked proof of the charges. 

He maintained that investigators didn't keep any record of their interviews with Lieber prior to his arrest. He argued that prosecutors would be unable to prove that Lieber acted "knowingly, intentionally, or willfully, or that he made any material false statement." 

Mukasey also stressed Lieber wasn't charged with illegally transferring any technology or proprietary information to China. 

Prosecutors argued that Lieber, who was arrested in January, 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. 

Lieber denied his involvement during inquiries 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, including $50,000 a month from the Wuhan University of Technology, up to $158,000 in living expenses and more than $1.5 million in grants, according to prosecutors.