U.S. says professor took Chinese funds

BOSTON— A Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor has been arrested on charges accusing him of hiding work he did for the Chinese government while he also was receiving U.S. dollars for his nanotechnology research.

Gang Chen, 56, was arrested by federal agents Thursday at his home in Cambridge on charges including wire fraud, officials said. Agents executed searched his home and his office at the university, said Joseph Bonavolonta, head of the Boston FBI office.

While working for MIT, Chen entered into undisclosed contracts and held appointments affiliated with China, including as an “overseas expert” for the Chinese government at the request of the Chinese Consulate in New York, authorities said. Many of those roles were “expressly intended to further [China’s] scientific and technological goals,” authorities said in court documents.

Chen did not disclose his connections to China as is required on federal grant applications, authorities said. He and his research group collected about $29 million in foreign dollars, including millions from a Chinese government-funded university, while getting $19 million in grants from U.S. federal agencies for his work at MIT since 2013, authorities said.

“It is not illegal to collaborate with foreign researchers. It is illegal to lie about it,” Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling told reporters.

An email seeking comment was sent to Chen’s attorney.

MIT said it is “deeply distressed” by Chen’s arrest.

“MIT believes the integrity of research is a fundamental responsibility, and we take seriously concerns about improper influence in U.S. research. Prof. Chen is a long-serving and highly respected member of the research community, which makes the government’s allegations against him all the more distressing,” the school said in a statement.

Chen was arrested nearly a year after federal authorities arrested another nanotechnology expert at a prestigious university in the Boston area. Harvard professor Charles Lieber was charged last January with lying about his ties to China’s Thousand Talents Plan, a program designed to lure people with knowledge of foreign technology and intellectual property to China.