KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Federal prosecutors alleged Tuesday that a Kansas researcher illegally kept his work with a Chinese university secret, while the defense countered that he was merely “moonlighting.”
The conflicting portrayals came during opening statements in the trial of Feng “Franklin” Tao in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kansas, on charges of wire and program fraud. He is accused of not disclosing on conflict-of-interest forms the work he was doing for China while employed at the University of Kansas — something federal prosecutors contend is a scheme to defraud the university, the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation.
Tao’s case was part of what the Justice Department called its China Initiative, an effort created in 2018 to crack down on trade secret theft and economic espionage. The department last month ended the initiative following public criticism and failed prosecutions, though officials say they still intend to pursue the threat from China.
Tao, who was born in China and moved to the U.S. in 2002, began working in August 2014 at the University of Kansas’ Center for Environmentally Beneficial Catalysis, which conducts research on sustainable technology to conserve natural resources and energy.
In 2018, he reached out to a colleague at another university for advice after he was named to a Chinese talent program, the Changjiang Professorship, prosecutor Adam Barry said in his opening statement.
Tao’s asked his colleague whether he should he give up his job at the University of Kansas or go to China, Barry said. The colleague suggested in a secretly recorded call that Tao be upfront with the University of Kansas. Barry told jurors that Tao ignored that advice.
As an associate professor of engineering at the University of Kansas, he was supposed to devote 40% of his time to research, 40% to teaching and 20% on activities like serving on committees.
