University of Kansas professor faces 20 years in federal prison after he is convicted of hiding his ties to the Chinese government while working on US-funded research
A University of Kansas professor faces 20 years in jail after being convicted for fraud for hiding his ties to the Chinese government while working on US-funded research.
Feng 'Franklin' Tao, 55, was found guilty of three counts of wire fraud and one of making false statements for failing to disclose to KU that he was also employed full-time by a government-affiliated institution, Fuzhou University, in China.
KU requires faculty members to file annual reports detailing outside employment and other potential conflicts of interest but Tao never disclosed that he was also working for Fuzhou University, according to the Department of Justice.
He later lied to KU in order to conceal his position in China, telling colleagues in Kansas that he had moved to Germany when he had actually relocated to Fuzhou to take up the fulltime position with the university there.
Tao's is the latest trial to come out of a now-ended Trump-era crackdown on Chinese influence within US research amid concerns of economic espionage and intellectual property theft.
University of Kansas professor Feng 'Franklin' Tao faces 20 years in jail after being convicted for fraud for illegally concealing that he was also employed by a government-affiliated university in China while conducting research funded by the US government
University of Kansas professor faces 20 years in federal prison after he is convicted of fraud | Daily Mail Online