
Harvard Professor and Two Chinese Nationals Charged in Three Separate Cases - yasp
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/harvard-university-professor-and-two-chinese-nationals-charged-three-separate-china-related
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mzs
"Dr. Charles Lieber, 60, Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical
Biology at Harvard University"

>The charging documents, unsealed Tuesday, allege that under the Thousand
Talents contract Lieber was paid $50,000 in monthly salary by China's Wuhan
University of Technology and another $158,000 in living expenses. He was also
awarded some $1.74 million to set up a research lab there.

[https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/harvard-s-chemistry-
cha...](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/harvard-s-chemistry-chair-
charged-allegedly-lying-about-china-contract-n1124646)

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dokein
I'm always astounded by how little money it takes to bribe someone. An Ivy-
League chair makes around $250,000, which probably underestimates his salary
(STEM is generally higher than humanities), does not include income made from
legitimate consulting opportunities, and does not include any residual income
from his patents and former companies. Since he wasn't charged with tax fraud
I assume he reported his income correctly, which would mean that his total
compensation was at most 3-4X'ed by this deal (but probably closer to 2-3X'ed)
over a ten year time period.

The difference between 500K/year and 1M/year in household income is a
significant difference in lifestyle but not enormous. You may fly first class
instead of business, but you aren't buying any private jets. Your children
don't need to worry about college and, as a Chair, have access to strong
social network, but you won't have your name on a building. You probably have
the best house in your academic neighborhood, but you're not buying rare art
to hang on the walls.

Meanwhile, the downside is throwing away 40 years of hard work, loss of your
other income sources, and possibly prison.

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mzs
It says this went on from '18-19 so let's guess it was 12 months, that's more
than $750K and $1.5 million in grant money. When most payments in other cases
have just 3-4 zeros, this is not a small one. This means it was really
valuable to PRC.

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nsporillo
Interesting this is coming to light right as China gets hit with a deadly
virus from Wuhan...

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mc32
Things happen and the world goes on. Most things aren’t coordinated events or
conspiracies.

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rootsudo
I dunno.. Chemistry is right next to Bio

