A former Harvard chemistry professor convicted in 2021 of hiding his financial ties to the Chinese government will not spend time in prison.
A federal judge in Boston sentenced Charles Lieber on Wednesday to six months home confinement and ordered him to pay a $50,000 fine.
In a court appearance, Lieber, who had been one of the world's top chemists until his arrest, expressed remorse.
“I regret the things that brought me here,” he said, wiping away tears. “I lost my job, my career and my freedom.”
Prosecutors had asked for a three-month prison term for the 64-year-old academic, who was recently diagnosed with lymphoma. The government also argued that Lieber should pay a fine of more than $180,000, stating in court documents that he had “embarked on a years-long scheme to further his career through lies and deceit, while also lining his pockets courtesy of the Chinese government.”
Federal officials arrested Lieber on Harvard’s campus as part of the China Initiative, an effort launched by the Justice Department under the Trump administration to counter academic espionage and theft of American intellectual property.
A jury found Lieber guilty of lying to Harvard and the IRS about payments he received for participating in a recruitment program organized by the Chinese government.
Lieber quietly resigned from his position at Harvard, where he had been on paid administrative leave.
In pushing for a lighter sentence and home detention, Lieber’s attorneys argued that he didn’t knowingly lie to the government. They also said Lieber's late stage cancer diagnosis and weakened immune system would mean that any time he spent in prison would be “a death sentence."
