BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — The Harvard professor accused of taking millions of dollars from China to share his expertise with Chinese universities—and then lying about it when applying for federal U.S. grants—was back in federal court in Boston Thursday.
Dr. Charles Lieber, chair of Harvard University's Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, is charged with willfully making materially false, fictitious, and fraudulent statements to the Department of Defense and National Institutes of Health regarding his involvement in China's "Thousand Talents Plan" and with Wuhan University of Technology.
He was released on a $1 million bond co-signed by his wife. He has five days to post the bond.
At his appearance Thursday morning, prosecutors asked that Lieber be held on the bond, which was tied to the home he owes with his wife. In order to secure that bond, Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler said she needed to question Lieber's wife, who wasn't present. Bowler ordered the court into recess until Lieber's wife could arrive.
When court reconvened, Lieber and his wife were ordered to surrender their passports.
Neither had any comment for reporters when leaving court.
WBZ NewsRadio's Kim Tunnicliffe (@KimWBZ) reports
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