
Professor admits faking AIDS vaccine to get $19M in grants - lmg643
http://nypost.com/2013/12/26/professor-admits-faking-aids-vaccine-to-get-19m-in-grants/
======
throwaway_yy2Di
_" Han agreed last month not to seek government contracts for three years, the
register said."_

Something's missing from the story. He committed major fraud in a federal
grant: where're the felony charges? People spend years in prison for this type
of crime (e.g. [0-2]); so, something's off.

The _Federal Register_ notice the OP is citing is probably this one: [3].

[0]
[http://www.albany.edu/~scifraud/data/sci_fraud_4952.html](http://www.albany.edu/~scifraud/data/sci_fraud_4952.html)

[1]
[http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2011/November/11-crm-1547.html](http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2011/November/11-crm-1547.html)
(hey that's Carmen Ortiz!)

[2] [http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/11/ex-
psu_pr...](http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/11/ex-
psu_prof_craig_grimes_sente.html)

[3]
[https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2013/12/23/2013-304...](https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2013/12/23/2013-30424/findings-
of-research-misconduct)

~~~
anigbrowl
I agree, this seems like it should be heavily prosecuted. This sort of
misbehavior and subsequent lack of serious enforcement is just grist to the
mill of people who want to cut scientific funding across the board, claim
climate change is a hoax by grant-chasing scientists etc.

~~~
001sky
Why isn't this considered "grant piracy" and this guy charged with wire-fraud
by the feds? Surely he mis-used the postal service, banking system, and inter-
state commerce in here somewhere? Why not a conspiracy under RICO? there seem
to be all kinds of ways to send a better message than...please wait three
years to attempt your next crime!

~~~
sillysaurus2
Laws aren't meant to be weapons to be used against those we hate. If he
committed a crime, then let his actual crime be the crime we charge him with.
Laws against wire fraud protect people from a certain kind of malicious
behavior which wasn't exhibited here.

Going down the route of "find crimes to charge him with" is a bad idea for
many reasons, one being: if it becomes commonplace to bend the spirit of laws
just to send a message, then that will make the already-too-powerful courts
even moreso.

~~~
CharlieA
I agree with your premise that the spirit of a law shouldn't be violated to
send a message but I don't see that it applies here.

For me this doesn't pass the sense test: should a person be able to knowingly,
intentionally fake the results of a scientific experiment in order to secure a
grant of taxpayer money? No. No more than you should be able to fake the
'results' of your yearly income, say, for the purpose of receiving welfare.

~~~
talmand
I don't believe the comment was to not charge the guy with anything, it was
not to charge him with more than necessary to punish him for the crime he
actually did commit.

------
ChuckMcM
_" Han agreed last month not to seek government contracts for three years, the
register said."_

Hmmm, well if you're caught faking your science how do you ever get a job
again where you can apply for a grant? One would hope he would switch
professions at this point.

~~~
jmpeax
Hopefully the people reviewing his grants in three years time will remember
him.

------
swombat
Not sure exactly how a smart person can choose to do something that's so
obviously going to get him caught and ruin his career. Lying about something
as highly visible as an AIDS vaccine seems just plain stupid, whatever the
ethics of it may be...

~~~
daemonk
Reproducibility is a big problem in biology right now. He probably thought he
could delay people finding out until he can produce good legitimate research
that might distract attention away from the faked data.

I was thinking, "please don't be Chinese" when I read the title. Fuck.

~~~
D9u
I was under the impression that the name _Dong-Pyou Han_ was of Korean origin?

~~~
icegreentea
Han is a valid Chinese and Korean last name.

However, this researcher appears to be Chinese based on his previous
publication history (he was affiliated with a university in Shanghai prior to
coming to the states which is unlikely occurrence for a Korean)

~~~
w1ntermute
I think you've got it wrong:
[http://www.nature.com/emm/journal/v32/n1/abs/emm20002a.html](http://www.nature.com/emm/journal/v32/n1/abs/emm20002a.html)

He was previously affiliated with Yonsei University, located in Seoul.

------
001sky
_The falsified results prompted more funding for the vaccine effort._

But, of course... ;D

[http://www.kcci.com/news/central-iowa/isu-researcher-
admits-...](http://www.kcci.com/news/central-iowa/isu-researcher-admits-to-
faking-aids-research-
resigns/-/9357080/23630668/-/v96wr/-/index.html?absolute=true)

------
auvrw
one summer in college, i had a research-y project at a respected state school
(which shall remain nameless except to say not a UC), wherein one of the
program organizers publicly admitted to falsifying data. now this wasn't data
that anyone was going to look at too carefully, and the justification was that
it would get aid for some noble cause in need (although apparently not as in
need as the prof. thought it ought to be), but...

c'mon, "scientists," don't just start lying to people.

------
a_olt
Besides the issue of his seemingly trivial prosecution that others posters
have noted, I also wonder what he spent the grant on, or planned to?

~~~
tensor
Unless science funding is different in the US, and as far as I know it is not,
he cannot spend it on personal things. The worst he could do is buy himself
some computers "for research" then use them for only for personal use, or give
them to family. Purchases still need to go through the university. Sometimes
grant money even has restrictions on this, e.g. it can be used only for
students.

He most likely did this to get more resources for research work. E.g. it was
motivated by a desire for fame and status.

~~~
ssmoot
Reading the thread sibling responses, it seems plausible you could get around
that? (I'm just a lay-person.)

I mean, you pay the University $XX for "misc facilities and support". That
goes into the school's fund. Later, the Dean gives you a "completely unrelated
and coincidental" Xmas bonus of $X. Also out of the school's fund. It's not
grant money at that point. It's from a general discretionary fund that just
happens to get deposits for services provided to grant based science.

So... money laundering basically I guess?

