MIT faculty defend professor against trumped-up charges related to China ties
In a letter to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) President L. Rafael Reif, a draft of which was posted to Twitter, 100 MIT faculty members issued a resounding defense of their colleague, Professor Gang Chen, who was indicted last week on charges of wire fraud and tax violations and failing to disclose financial ties to China.
The Massachusetts US Attorney’s Office issued a press release January 20 reporting that Chen, the director of the MIT Pappalardo Micro/Nano Engineering Laboratory and director of the Solid-State Solar Thermal Energy Conversion Center (S3TEC), was charged in a criminal complaint and arrested on January 14.
Boston A professor and researcher at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was indicted yesterday by a federal grand jury in connection with failing to disclose contracts, appointments and awards from various entities in the People s Republic of China (PRC) to the U.S. Department of Energy, announced Ramsey Covington, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service s Criminal Investigation in Boston.
Gang Chen was indicted on two counts of wire fraud, one count of failing to file a foreign bank account report (FBAR) and one count of making a false statement in a tax return. Chen was charged by criminal complaint and arrested on Jan. 14, 2021.
MIT Prof Arrested over Undisclosed China Ties
Kyle Reynolds and Adam Sabes, Campus Reform, January 14, 2021
Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Gang Chen was charged and arrested Thursday after failing to disclose ties to the Chinese government when seeking federal grant money.
This is just the most recent example of a professor at a U.S. college or university to be arrested over undisclosed ties to China. Campus Reform has documented multiple other instances from across the country.
According to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice, Chen was charged with wire fraud, failure of filing a foreign bank account report, and making falsifying a statement on a tax return.