Professor, wife sentenced on convictions of defrauding NASA
A university professor in Pennsylvania has been sentenced to a year and a day in prison on a conviction of defrauding NASA by letting graduate students and researchers do all the work on a $700,000 project.
U.S. District Court Judge Harvey Bartle III also ordered Yujie Ding on Wednesday to pay a fine of $3,000 and restitution of $72,000. His wife, Yuliya Zotova, was sentenced to three months in prison.
Authorities said the Lehigh University engineering professor and his wife told NASA that their startup company ArkLight would develop a cutting-edge sensor used to track climate change. Instead, prosecutors alleged, they used the company “as a front to funnel federal grant money to themselves for research performed by students and others.”
Jurors convicting the couple of six of 10 fraud counts.
From the bigstory.ap.org
Lehigh University professor, wife sentenced in scheme to defraud NASA
A former professor at Lehigh University and his wife were sentenced to federal prison Wednesday for a scheme in which the pair defrauded NASA out of $72,000.
According to information released by the United States Attorney’s Office, Yujie Ding, of Center Valley, was sentenced in federal court to a year and a day in prison, while his wife, and co-defendant, Yuliya Zotova, was sentenced to three months in prison.
The couple was convicted in November 2015 on five counts of wire fraud.
The release noted that U.S. District Court Judge Harvey Bartle III also ordered the pair to pay a $3,000 fine and restitution in the amount of $72,000 after defrauding NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research Program.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, from August 2009 through July 2010, the pair submitted proposals to NASA seeking research funding by claiming that their business, ArkLight, was doing research and subcontracting work to Lehigh University where Ding was a professor.
Instead, an investigation found that the pair used ArkLight “as a front to funnel federal grant money to themselves for research performed by students and others working under Ding’s supervision at his university lab.”
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the defendants sent invoices to NASA for research that, a jury found, ArkLight had not participated in.
From the phillyvoice.com
