A leading immunologist at The Ohio State University was arrested while trying to flee to China after he illegally received Chinese funding for his research, federal prosecutors alleged in a criminal complaint unsealed Thursday.
The Justice Department alleged Song Guo Zheng, 57, received more than $4 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health while he concealed his affiliation with Chinese “Talent Plans,” which the United States says are used by China’s government to gain access to foreign technology and intellectual property.
“We allege that Zheng was preparing to flee the country after he learned that his employer had begun an administrative process into whether or not he was complying with rules governing taxpayer-funded grants,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio David DeVillers said in a statement Thursday, adding that it was his office’s third recent case involving China’s attempts to obtain intellectual property and research illegally.
Zheng, the Ronald L. Whisler MD Chair in Rheumatology and Immunology at Ohio State’s medical school, is accused of fraudulently obtaining federal grants and making false statements about his links to China. He was arrested May 22 after he arrived via a private charter flight in Anchorage and his luggage was searched.
“Zheng was desperate to leave the United States quickly, and utilized powerful or influential friends in order to obtain a seat on a private charter flight and ensure it was able to leave the U.S.,” the complaint alleged.
Customs and Border Protection found numerous electronic devices in one of his bags, including two laptops, three cellphones, and several USB drives, the Justice Department said. Zheng was also carrying several silver bars, expired Chinese passports for his family, and deeds for property in China, according to prosecutors.
The criminal complaint alleged Zheng tried to pass off his bag with his electronics to another passenger, who said she did not know Zheng but was trying to help him with his luggage, in an effort to prevent law enforcement from searching the items.
The FBI said Zheng told investigators contradictory stories about why he was traveling to China. He originally said he was moving to China to retire but later stated he was going there to visit his sick father.
Zheng’s explanations for his alleged ties to Chinese entities were also inconsistent, the FBI said. At one point, Zheng admitted he received funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China and said he disclosed it to his then-employer, the University of Southern California.
Investigators argued that if Zheng previously knew to disclose his Chinese funding to his employer, he should have known to do the same when he received funding in subsequent years. While he was managing millions in NIH grants, he was simultaneously receiving Chinese government funding, too, without disclosing it to the NIH as the rules required. While working at Ohio State, Zheng was also employed as a professor and “expert of Thousand Talents program” at Sun-Yat Sen University in China, which he also failed to disclose to the NIH and OSU.
According to the criminal complaint, Zheng fled six days after he was confronted by Ohio State about the alleged omissions.
A spokesman for Ohio State told the Washington Examiner that Zheng is likely to be fired.
“Song Guo Zheng is an Ohio State employee. He is currently on unpaid leave and we are proceeding towards termination, following university processes. Ohio State has been and continues to assist federal law enforcement authorities in every way possible. We cannot comment further at this time due to the ongoing law enforcement investigation,” said Benjamin Johnson, the university’s director of media relations.
A lawyer for Zheng did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
“Yet again, we are faced with a professor at a U.S. University, who is a member of a Chinese Talent Plan, allegedly and deliberately failing to disclose his relationship with a Chinese university and receipt of funds from the Chinese Government in order to obtain millions of dollars in U.S. grant money designed to benefit the health and well-being of the people of the United States — not to be hijacked to supplement the research goals of the Chinese Communist Party,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Demers said.
The case is the latest in a long list of inquiries involving Chinese funding and researchers based in the U.S. The Justice Department began its China Initiative in 2018 in response to the espionage threat, and the U.S. has arrested and charged a number of scientists, including Harvard’s chemistry chairman Charles Lieber. At least 54 scientists have lost their jobs over a failure to disclose financial ties to foreign governments, the NIH said in June. Ninety-three percent of those cases involved funding from a Chinese institution.
In an affidavit unsealed in April, the FBI alleged that China’s ambassador in Washington and a Chinese diplomat in New York City secretly assisted in the recruitment of scientists in the U.S.
FBI Director Christopher Wray said last month that the bureau is “opening a new counterintelligence investigation that ties back to China every 10 hours.”
