US scientist recruited by China pleads guilty to lying to government

A former Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist accused of lying about his contact with a Chinese recruitment program pleaded guilty last Friday to one count of making a false statement to the U.S. government.

Turab Lookman of Santa Fe accepted the plea as part of an agreement with federal prosecutors that includes dismissal of two other charges.

Lookman will be sentenced at a later date, probably within 60 to 90 days, federal prosecutor George C. Kraehe said.

He could face up to five years in federal prison and be fined as much as $250,000.

Lookman, who was 67 when he was arrested, admitted to lying to a LANL investigator in 2018 about his contact with a program that prosecutors said had been “established by the Chinese government to recruit people with access to and knowledge of foreign technology and intellectual property.”

U.S. Magistrate Judge B. Paul Briones told Lookman that the 10-month sentence the defendant had discussed with attorneys was “on the low end” and would not be binding to the U.S. District Court judge who will decide whether to accept the terms of the plea deal.

The FBI arrested Lookman after he was indicted in May 2019 on three counts of making false statements about being recruited by and applying to participate in China’s Thousand Talents Program for personal compensation.

“The laboratory proactively recognized this issue and since then has worked cooperatively with federal law enforcement and will continue to assist as appropriate during the sentencing phase,” lab spokesman Kevin Roark said in a statement Friday.

Lookman joined LANL in 1999 and was named a laboratory fellow in 2017, one of the laboratory’s highest scientific honors. He has authored two books and more than 250 academic articles.

His indictment came as tensions escalated between the U.S. and China over intellectual property disputes and a mounting trade war. U.S. officials have accused China of extensive intellectual property theft, including for high-tech military weaponry that raises national security concerns.

China has worked in the past decade to boost its status as a superpower, creating several recruitment initiatives such as the Thousand Talents Program to lure top-level scientists in high-tech fields, partly by offering large research grants. The White House has called Thousand Talents a threat to the U.S.

The Thousand Talents Program is cited as one of China’s most successful efforts at appropriating rival countries’ high-tech research. China’s applications for new patents have grown almost fivefold to 1.5 million since the program was...

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