CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS — A Harvard professor is in big trouble with the feds for lying about his ties with China.<br /><br />According to court documents, Charles Lieber headed Harvard University's Lieber Research Group, and got over $15 million in grants from the U.S. National Institutes of Health and Department of Defense.<br /><br />What he failed to mention was that he was also on another country's payroll. <br /><br />The BBC reports that in 2011, Lieber was recruited by China into its Thousand Talents Plan, which is designed to lure foreign scientists and research specialists to China.<br /><br />He joined the Wuhan University of Technology as a scientist, and was paid a salary of $50 Gs a month and up to $158,000 in living expenses to set up a research lab, apply for patents, and publish articles on the Chinese university's behalf.<br /><br />Lieber was arrested at his office on Tuesday for concealing his Chinese funding, and remains in federal custody.<br /><br />Prosecutors also announced charges for Boston University robotics researcher Yangqing Ye, who sent documents and information to China and hid the fact that she was a lieutenant for the People's Liberation Army.<br /><br />Just last month, authorities also nabbed a Chinese cancer researcher for stealing specimen vials from a lab and attempting to smuggle them back into China inside a sock in his luggage.
