BOSTON: A professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who specializes in nanotechnology research was arrested on U.S. charges that he failed to disclose his ties to the Chinese government when seeking federal grant money.
Federal prosecutors in Boston on Thursday charged Gang Chen, a Chinese-born mechanical engineer and nanotechnologist, with defrauding the U.S. Department of Energy when seeking grants and failing to disclose a foreign bank account on a tax return.
Following his arrest, the Federal Bureau of Investigation executed search warrants at his home in Cambridge and office at MIT, where he is the director of the MIT Pappalardo Micro/Nano Engineering Laboratory.
Chen was later released on bail. MIT in a statement said it was “deeply distressed” by the arrest. Chen’s attorney, Robert Fisher, said the 56-year-old “loves the United States and looks forward to vigorously defending these allegations.”
The case is the latest to emerge from a U.S. Justice…