Nate Raymond

(Reuters) – The University of Kansas’ chemical engineering professor was convicted of hiding work he was doing while conducting U.S. funded research.

Feng Franklin Tao, a Kansas City federal jury found him guilty of four counts including wire fraud. The latest Trump-era trial involving Chinese influence in U.S. Research was the result of a Trump-era crackdown.

He was just one of the approximately two dozen academics indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice China Initiative, which was started during Trump’s presidential administration to fight suspected Chinese financial espionage.

After several unsuccessful prosecutions and criticisms that the program chilled academic research, and fuelled bias against Asians it was ended by Justice Department in February. However it stated it will continue to pursue cases over China-related threats.

Tao has denied any wrongdoing. Peter Zeidenberg was his attorney and stated in a statement that he intended to challenge the verdict. Julie Robinson, U.S. District Judge, said that she found “significant issues” with the evidence.

“While we are deeply disappointed with the jury’s verdict, we believe it was so clearly against the weight of the evidence we are convinced that it will not stand,” he said.

Tao joined the University of Kansas Center for Environmentally Beneficial Catalysis (2014,) to work on renewable energy projects including shale.

Prosecutors claimed that Tao, a Chinese national, signed a five year contract with Fuzhou University. This required Tao to become a full-time employee. He had applied for one of China’s “talent programs.”

According to the Justice Department, China is using these programs to encourage foreign researchers and scientists to exchange their knowledge.

The prosecutors claimed Tao had falsely reported to the school that there were no conflicts of interest. This allowed Tao to fraud the university and U.S. Department of Energy as well as the National Science Foundation.