BOSTON —

Dr. Charles Lieber, the former chair of the Chemistry Department at Harvard University, is scheduled to stand trial starting Tuesday on federal crimes related to his alleged ties to the Chinese government.

He has pleaded not guilty.

Lieber, 62, was first arrested on Jan. 28, 2020 and charged with making false statements to federal authorities.

According to a criminal complaint, Lieber did not disclose that he was being paid a salary of up to $50,000 per month and up to $158,000 per year in living expenses by China's Thousand Talents Plan and the Wuhan University of Technology. Federal investigators also determined that Lieber was awarded more than $1.5 million to establish a nanotechnology research lab at WUT.

Lieber is accused of making false statements about his connections to China on National Institutes of Health grant applications. Lelling said those programs required Lieber to disclose if he was working with any foreign power.

Lieber was placed on administrative leave by Harvard after the arrest, but his biography still appears on the university's website.

Additional charges were added to the case in July of 2020, when a grand jury indicted Lieber on two counts of failing to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts and two counts of making and subscribing a false income tax return.

Lieber's career focused on nanotechnology and he is the principal inventor on more than 35 patents.

The timing of the original charges, Lieber's alleged ties to the...

Read Full Story: https://www.wcvb.com/article/former-harvard-chemistry-department-chair-charle...