Chinese scientist Li Ning gets 12 years in prison for embezzling US$4.3 million of government funds
- Cloning expert and his colleague Zhang Lei from China Agricultural University in Beijing found guilty of moving funds to private firms the pair controlled
- Court rejects claims money was moved to prevent a funding gap
Dr Li Ning, an expert in cloning and former director of the State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology, was found guilty of illegally transferring the funds in the form of “investments” to several companies he controlled, though there was no evidence he spent any of the money on himself, the Intermediate People’s Court of Songyuan in northeast China’s Jilin province said in its verdict.
Li was also fined 3 million yuan, while his assistant, Dr Zhang Lei, was sentenced to five years and eight months in prison and fined 200,000 yuan on the same charge.
Yuan Chenghui, Li’s lawyer, confirmed the sentencing and said his client had expressed a willingness to appeal. He did not elaborate.
In his defence, Li said that he transferred the money – provided by the government to help finance research at his laboratory at China Agricultural University in Beijing – as a way to prevent a funding gap.