Cybersecurity Professor Faced China Funding Inquiry Before Disappearing (wired.com) 21
The FBI searched two homes of Indiana University Bloomington data privacy professor Xiaofeng Wang last week, following months of university inquiries into whether he received unreported research funding from China, WIRED reported Wednesday.
Wang, who leads the Center for Distributed Confidential Computing established with a $3 million National Science Foundation grant, was terminated on March 28 via email from the university provost. The university had contacted Wang in December regarding a 2017-2018 grant in China that listed him as a researcher, questioning whether he properly disclosed the funding to IU and in applications for U.S. federal research grants.
Jason Covert, Wang's attorney, said Wang and his wife Nianli Ma, whose employee profile was also removed, are "safe" and neither has been arrested. The couple's legal team has viewed a search warrant but received no affidavit establishing probable cause.
Wang, who leads the Center for Distributed Confidential Computing established with a $3 million National Science Foundation grant, was terminated on March 28 via email from the university provost. The university had contacted Wang in December regarding a 2017-2018 grant in China that listed him as a researcher, questioning whether he properly disclosed the funding to IU and in applications for U.S. federal research grants.
Jason Covert, Wang's attorney, said Wang and his wife Nianli Ma, whose employee profile was also removed, are "safe" and neither has been arrested. The couple's legal team has viewed a search warrant but received no affidavit establishing probable cause.
If he received funds, that's one thing. (Score:1, Troll)
But if all it takes is for another country to list your name on a research form somewhere for our country to go balls-out fuck you on your life, we're in some real murky territory ethically and morally. We could theorize all day about what actually happened, but I'd hope due process would mean something more than just, "You showed up on that form. You done."
Re:If he received funds, that's one thing. (Score:4, Insightful)
You seem to be making some major assumptions. One from the looks of it due process is being followed. Warrants are being obtained. No one is being detained with out cause, legal representation is happening..
You are the only one theorizing here.
Re:If he received funds, that's one thing. (Score:4, Informative)
Unike the legal resident who was protected from deportation by court order, but was sent out of the country [nbcnews.com] because of an "administrative" error and the U.S. is not working to bring him back.
Re: (Score:2)
We can discuss other cases where due process is definitely being denied, but this is not one of them.
Re: (Score:1)
You seem to be making some major assumptions. One from the looks of it due process is being followed. Warrants are being obtained. No one is being detained with out cause, legal representation is happening..
You are the only one theorizing here.
Sorry. I forgot that we gave up on that innocent until proven guilty thing. I'll see myself out.
Re: (Score:1)
Sorry. I forgot that we gave up on that innocent until proven guilty thing.
He hasn't been judged or jailed. Your outrage is mere posturing.
Re: (Score:2)
This comment is downright stupid. By your logic no one could ever be charged for a crime because they are presumed innocent.
Re: (Score:3)
That he AND his wife have been scrubbed from the university website is a little more than theorizing.
Meanwhile, the investigation has already gone past the point where it is in itself punishment with no affidavit establishing probable cause in sight.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
This guy seems guilty as can be, but I'm a little bit confused at what he did wrong. Clearly, he knows he did something illegal because he fled the country when people started asking him about it. From the linked article, it sounds like he might have taken DARPA money, while also secretly taking money from China. There's probably some amount of fraud going on, but it's likely the intersection with defense money that has the FBI involved.
Not too sure (Score:2, Insightful)
A nonwhite, non-native person looking at what's going on [dailymail.co.uk] in "the land of the free" could easily decide it is a very good time to be somewhere else even if they're completely innocent.
Re: (Score:2, Troll)
This is not just "another country"...this is china, an antagonistic enemy of the US, that we very well might be a war with within a decade.
China has been actively stealing IP from the US, and they do it through university research quite often.
It is appropriate to see if someone here is spying or working f
I'm having trouble with newfangled slang terms (Score:4, Funny)
This story has exposed my failure to keep up with some of the expressions being used by kids these days. The story is about Wang disappearing. In my day, we called it "hide the sausage".
More intelligence lost.. (Score:1)
This is a top researcher in his field (Score:4, Informative)