Former University of Florida Professor Charged with Federal Grant Fraud and Concealing Background of Chinese Government Support

U.S. officials say a former University of Florida professor and researcher fraudulently received $1.8 million in federal grants while concealing the support he received from the Chinese government and the profits he made from a company he set up in China.

The indictment, released Wednesday (Feb. 4), charges Yang Lin Yang, 43, a Chinese national, with six counts of wire fraud and four counts of making false statements to U.S. agents.

Yang Lin returned to China in August 2019 and has yet to return to the United States.

Taxpayer dollars used to fund Yang should benefit the health and well-being of Americans,” Lawrence Keefe, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Florida, said in a statement. But our indictment states that Yang engaged in intentional fraud so he could obtain more of the Communist government’s research targets and benefit his own business.”

According to the indictment, Yang received funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop a muscle imaging technology called “MuscleMiner,” and from September 2014 to July 2019, Yang was a principal investigator on an NIH-authored research project at the University of Florida. .

The inspector also noted that Yang founded a company called Deep Informatics in China in 2016. He was also included in China’s “Thousand Talents Program” because of his association with Northwestern Polytechnic University.

According to the indictment, Yang Lin intentionally concealed his business in China and his involvement in the Chinese government’s talent program in the United States. The prosecutor said Yang repeatedly provided false statements and intentionally concealed information to the National Institutes of Health and the University of Florida, among other things.

Each of the wire fraud charges against Yang Lin carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine; each count of making false statements to a U.S. institution carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The Jacksonville Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Health-Office of the Attorney General (HHS-OIG) are involved in the investigation.