MILWAUKEE: Suspicion quickly fell on a research assistant who had been working in a scientist’s lab when three vials of a possible cancer-fighting compound disappeared recently from the professor’s desk at the Medical College of Wisconsin.
Security video showed Hua Jun Zhao, who studied in China and whose wife lives there, was the only person who entered the professor’s office that day. Investigators later found research results from another professor on Zhao’s computer.
Zhao has been charged in a federal complaint with economic espionage, accused by prosecutors of stealing academic research to pass off as his own in China. Prosecutors said he hoped to study the compound and other materials at Zhejiang University, one of several Chinese schools that have been troubled by plagiarism, fraud and academic misconduct.
Zhao, 42, worked on a team led by professor Marshall Anderson, who is researching whether the compound can help kill cancer cells without damaging healthy ones, school spokeswoman Maureen Mack said. The compound is still being studied in a lab and has not yet advanced to clinical testing, she said.
The stolen vials of the C-25 powder are worth USD 8,000, the complaint said. Leonard Peace, an FBI spokesman in Milwaukee, said he couldn’t comment beyond what was in the complaint, except to confirm the vials had not been recovered.
Anderson noticed the vials missing on February 22. School security video showed Zhao was the only person who entered Anderson’s office that day. Federal investigators questioned him about the vials on February 27, but Zhao claimed he did not understand their questions, the complaint said. The school immediately placed him on administrative leave.
Zhao’s co-workers told the FBI that Zhao spoke excellent English and he had lived in the US for many years. Mack declined to say how long Zhao worked at the school and would not provide details of his immigration status, referring questions to the FBI.
Zhao was arrested on March 29 and charged with economic espionage, which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a USD 500,000 fine. A judge ordered him held at Milwaukee County Jail until trial. No trial date has been set but a preliminary hearing is scheduled for April 11.
Zhao’s public defender, Juval Scott, said it was too early to comment on the case.
“Right now I know that a talented professional has been accused of a serious crime,” she said in an email, “and our office looks forward to rolling up our sleeves and working on his behalf.” -AP
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