It may sound like a “Mission Impossible” movie plot but, in reality, truth again proves stranger than fiction, with the arrests of two Chinese nationals and a Harvard professor, all charged with espionage, theft of trade secrets and hacking.
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The U.S. Department of Justice announced in late January 2020 that an investigation spanning several years had culminated in charges against the three. Charles Lieber, chairman of Harvard’s department of chemistry and chemical biology, was charged with “making a materially false, fictitious and fraudulent statement.” He allegedly also received $50,000 a month from China’s Wuhan University of Technology (WUT) and other financial perks to establish a research lab at WUT — all while employed at Harvard.
Yanqing Ye was indicted for “visa fraud, making false statements, acting as an agent of a foreign government and conspiracy;” Zaosong Zheng was arrested in December at Boston’s airport and charged with smuggling goods from the United States and making false, fictitious or fraudulent statements.
Together, the three are suspected of colluding with China’s Wuhan University of Technology in various ways to “seek to lure Chinese overseas talent and foreign experts to bring their knowledge and experience to China and reward individuals for stealing proprietary information.” Additionally, Zheng admitted to stealing 21 vials of biological research and attempting to smuggle them out of the United States aboard a flight destined for China.
What was in those vials has not been publicly divulged, but the very idea that such a thing happened in such close proximity to the coronavirus outbreak leaves an open door for more questions and all kinds of possibilities.
It’s not like things like this haven’t happened elsewhere in other scenarios, especially with university professors double-dipping with payments from nefarious sources. Take University of Florida’s Kevin Folta, for example, who vehemently denied ever receiving any money from Monsanto, was caught doing just the opposite when his email correspondence was released in response to a freedom of information (FOIA) request by US Right to Know.
Folta received a $25,000 unrestricted grant from Monsanto, and Folta wrote back to a Monsanto executive saying: "I am grateful for this opportunity and promise a solid return on the investment." Subsequently, Folta laid out a three-tiered program that included training the trainers, engaging the public and on-campus training at the University of Florida — all with the intent of hiding important health information about Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide.
That said, the health care industry itself is part of the plot to deny the public the real truth about what some drugs can or cannot do. A ProPublica analysis revealed nearly 9 in 10 cardiologists, and 7 in 10 internists and family practitioners, included in their study received payments from drug or device companies in 2014.
ProPublica analyzed the prescribing habits of doctors who wrote at least 1,000 prescriptions in the Medicare Part D drug program. The doctors belonged to five common specialties: psychiatry, cardiovascular disease, family medicine, internal medicine and ophthalmology.
Not only was the receipt of drug-company money associated with a higher percentage of brand-name drug prescriptions, but the prescriptions rose with the amount of money received.
And, to make matters worse, it appears that sometimes even those who are supposed to be making and enforcing laws are not immune to bribes and buy-offs. Investigations have also shown that when lobbyists for huge corporations want to donate to the associations that fund attorneys general (AG) political campaigns, they can, and do — and in so doing gain greater access to the AG for their favorite causes.
For example, when CBS News investigated in 2018, they found that to attend a lavish four-day retreat with state AGs, corporate lobbyists only needed to donate $125,000. At one such retreat on Kiawah Island, South Carolina, lobbyists could golf, play pool and enjoy yoga on the beach, sign up for a dolphin tour and enjoy an open bar with the top law enforcement officials of each state, CBS said.
It’s certainly a lucrative business for both the givers and the takers — where the only loser is the public. It isn’t right. It isn’t fair. And, in many cases it isn’t for the public good. That’s why it’s important to keep your eyes open and question everything.