Harvard University Chemistry Chairman Charles Lieber has been charged with fraud over his financial ties to China. Federal authorities allege that Lieber was paid millions of dollars by the communist Chinese government to create “collaborative projects.”

According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, Professor Charlies Lieber, the chair of the chemistry department at Harvard University, was arrested this week on charges that he received millions of dollars from the Chinese government. Harvard University is home to 36 Nobel laureates in chemistry.

The federal criminal complaint against Lieber claims that he lied to the Defense Department and National Institutes of Health about his relationship with a Chinese program that was designed to funnel research data from American universities to the Chinese government.

Between 2012 and 2017, the Wuhan University of Technology paid Leiber over $1.5 million to establish a research lab in China. Additionally, they paid Lieber a $50,000 monthly salary and $150,000 in annual living expenses. For this exorbitant salary, the university asked Lieber to create collaborative projects between the Chinese university and Harvard.

U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling claims that the Chinese government intentionally creates relationships with American professors so that they can undermine and exploit American research.

“This is a very carefully directed effort by the Chinese government to fill what it views as its own strategic gaps, and it uses its own citizens abroad,” Lelling said.

Breitbart News has reported extensively on China’s attempts to manipulate American universities.

Breitbart News reported in October that the University of Delaware would end its relationship with the Confucius Institute, an educational organization funded by the Chinese government that has been accused of manipulating American universities.

Last week, Breitbart News reported that four researchers at the University of Florida were forced to resign after a federal investigation revealed that they were funneling research data to other countries, including communist China.

Stay tuned to Breitbart News for more updates on this story.