A federal grand jury in Carbondale, Illinois, on the same day indicted Mingqing Xiao, a mathematics professor and researcher at Southern Illinois University (SIUC), on two counts of wire fraud and one count of making false statements, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday (April 21).
This is another prosecution under the Justice Department’s China Initiative, a broad, multifaceted effort to combat national security threats posed by China and to protect U.S. intellectual property, the Justice Department said.
According to court documents, Xiao Mingqing, 59, obtained a $151,000 federal grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) under false pretenses while concealing information about support he received from the Chinese government and a Chinese university.
The Justice Department statement quoted John C. Demers, assistant secretary for national security affairs, as saying, “Once again, what happened is that a U.S. professor was accused of empowering the Chinese government’s efforts to corruptly benefit from U.S. research funds by concealing his support for a branch of the Chinese government and a Chinese university obligations and the support he received from them. Honesty and transparency regarding the source of funding is at the heart of the research effort.”
In a statement, Special Agent Sean M. Cox, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Springfield Field Office, said, “This investigation, like many others, should serve as a reminder that any failure to be honest and transparent in applying for federal funding grants violates the law. In this case, the applicant is alleged to have failed to disclose his ties to China.”
Steven D. Weinhoeft, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, said in a statement, “These allegations are very serious. University grant fraud allows China to annex U.S. research and development at a fraction of the cost. Prosecutions like this one play an important role not only in protecting U.S. academic investments from foreign exploitation, but also in countering the growing threat posed by China to our national security.”
According to the indictment, Mingqing Xiao has worked for Southern Illinois University’s mathematics department since 2000. In his capacity as a professor at the university, he received a grant from the National Science Foundation to fund a project that runs from 2019 to 2022, but he did not inform the NSF that he was also receiving a grant from the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, China. He is also accused of failing to disclose that he received a salary from Shenzhen University, a public university in Guangdong Province, and that he had committed to teaching and conducting research for Shenzhen University from 2018 to 2023.
According to the indictment, while the NSF grant was pending, Xiao applied for another grant from China’s National Natural Science Foundation as an employee of Shenzhen University and failed to disclose the new application to the NSF. The indictment alleges that prior to awarding wholesale funds to Xiao Mingqing, NSF asked him if he had any existing or pending international resources, including positions or grants outside the United States, and he made a false report that he had nothing else to disclose.
If convicted, Xiao Mingqing is charged with a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for each count of wire fraud, a maximum penalty of five years in prison for making a false statement, and a fine of up to $250,000 on all three counts.
The DOJ statement mentions that the indictment alleges only that the defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
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