‘Talents’ Land U.S. Researcher in Prison

A rheumatology professor in the U.S. has been sentenced to 37 months in prison and fined nearly $4 million for lying to federal authorities in an immunology research fraud scheme, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Song Guo Zheng, MD, PhD, pleaded guilty in November 2020 after admitting he lied on applications to secure about $4.1 million in NIH grants “to develop China’s expertise in the areas of rheumatology and immunology.” Federal authorities suspect he planned to share research he then directed with the Chinese government, per its Thousand Talents program that seeks to steal research from other nations via embedding sympathetic allies.

“American research funding is provided by the American taxpayer for the benefit of American society — not as an illicit gift to the Chinese government,” said John C. Demers, assistant attorney general for DOJ’s National Security Division.

Zheng, 58, worked as an internal medicine and rheumatology professor when he led a team at Ohio State and Pennsylvania State universities conducting autoimmune research. He was responsible for “materially false and misleading statements” on the applications, the DOJ said, and “seeking to hide his participation in Chinese Talent Plans and his affiliation and collaboration with a Chinese university controlled by the Chinese government.”

Zheng was arrested in Alaska in May 2020, while trying to catch a plane to flee to China. He was carrying two laptops, three cell phones, several USB drives, some silver bars, expired Chinese passports for his family, and deeds for property in China, among other items.

Zheng is one of the latest researchers involved in Thousand Talents who have been identified publicly. In April, Yu Zhou, MD, was sentenced to 33 months in prison after pleading guilty to stealing scientific trade secrets regarding exosomes and exosome isolation from Nationwide Children’s Hospital Research Institute in Ohio, according to Endpoints News. He attempted to sell that information to China.

Four other researchers resigned from Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa last year, after hiding hundreds of thousands of dollars in research subsidies and salaries — despite being required by Moffitt and NIH to disclose these funds because they were tied to a foreign nation (China).

In 2019, MD Anderson Cancer Center removed three scientists and Emory University removed two neuroscientists for neglecting to disclose foreign research ties or undermining the integrity of research funding.

NIH director Francis Collins, MD, had issued a letter in 2018 to more than 10,000 research institutions, asking them to make sure NIH grantees report any links with foreign governments, Endpoints News reported.

“Zheng’s sentencing today is a recognition of the constant threat posed by the Chinese government to steal research funded by American taxpayers,” Chris Hoffman, an agent with the FBI’s Cincinnati office, said in DOJ’s press release.

In addition to his prison sentence, Zheng was ordered to pay more than $3.4 million in restitution to NIH and about $413,000 to Ohio State University.

“We hope Zheng’s prison sentence deters others from having anything to do with China’s so-called ‘1000 Talents Plan’ or any of its variations,” said Vipal J. Patel, acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Ohio.