Three New York University Langone Medical Center scientists were charged on Monday with conspiring to take bribes from a Chinese medical imaging company, United Imaging Healthcare, and a Chinese-backed research institute, according to The New York Times.
The bribery was in the form of monetary support to pay for such things as tuition, rent travel, and other expenses, and was allegedly made to, and accepted by, the defendants, Dr. Yudong Zhu, a professor and alumni of NYU, Xing Yang, a lab engineer, and Dr. Ye Li, postdoctoral fellow.
In an internal review process that took place earlier this year, NYU discovered "possible irregularities pursuant to research being conducted." The school quickly alerted authorities and offered complete cooperation in further legal review.
The criminal complaint alleges that the three men provided confidential information about a developing study on magnetic resonance imaging. U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara explained that these charges are grave owing to the fact that the findings of the study are valuable in the competitive global market, especially affecting future U.S.-Chinese market interests. The defendants "colluded with Chinese government entity and a direct competitor of the university for which they worked to illegally acquire N.I.H.-funded research for the benefit of those entities," she said.
The Las Vegas Sun reported that the criminal complaint includes details of an incident wherein the university's security cameras captured images of Yang taking photos of sensitive equipment in one private area, and when administrators confronted him, he admitted that a Chinese company paid him $20,000 for tuition in exchange for the images.
A prosecutor shared Monday that Yudong Zhu admitted that he had received almost $500,000 in total.
All three men are charged with one count of commercial bribery conspiracy. Dr. Zhu received an additional charge of one count of falsification of records.
