BOSTON — The Justice Department has dropped its case against a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor charged last year with hiding work he did for the Chinese government.
The department said in a filing Thursday in federal court in Boston that it “could no longer meet its burden of proof at trial” in the case against Gang Chen.
Chen was accused last year of concealing ties to Beijing while also collecting U.S. dollars for his nanotechnology research.
His lawyers have said he did nothing wrong.
In a statement, US Attorney Rachael Rollins said “Today’s dismissal of the criminal charges against Gang Chen is a result of our continued investigation into this matter. Through that effort, we recently obtained additional information pertaining to the materiality of Professor Chen’s alleged omissions in the context of the grant review process at issue in this case. After a careful assessment of this new information in the context of all the evidence, our office has concluded that we can no longer meet our burden of proof at trial.”
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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