A former Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist on Tuesday pleaded not guilty to federal charges that he lied about contacts with the Chinese government-sponsored group Thousand Talents, which the Donald Trump administration says seeks to steal U.S. intellectual property.
Some time between 2007 and 2018, Turab Lookman “had been recruited by, applied for, and been accepted to participate in China’s Thousand Talents Program for personal compensation,” according to a redacted May 22 indictment filed in U.S. District Court for New Mexico.
Lookman is charged with three counts of fraud and false statements for lying to the Department of Energy and the National Background Investigations Bureau within the federal Office of Personnel. He pleaded not guilty to all three counts, according to the clerk’s minutes of Lookman’s nearly 90-minute arraignment in Santa Fe before Magistrate Judge Kirtan Khalsa.
The court planned to release Lookman after he posted a bond, the minutes show. Authorities arrested the former Los Alamos physicist on May 23, according to another court filing.
According to Lookman’s LinkedIn profile, he has worked in research for the Los Alamos National Laboratory since August 1999. In September 2017, only months before the Justice Department alleges the physicist made the first of three false statements to federal investigators, the lab honored Lookman as one of its four annual fellows. Lookman at the time worked for the lab’s Theoretical Division, where he contributed to research on materials design and informatics, according to a press release.
Los Alamos National Security managed the laboratory during the time Lookman allegedly accepted, and lied about accepting, compensation from the Chinese program, according to the indictment. Each count of lying to the government carries a fine and a prison term of up to five years — or up to eight years, if the court finds Lookman’s alleged false statements involved international or domestic terrorism.
The Associated Press, which covered the arraignment, reported Lookman worked for the lab “until very recently.”
In February, related to a separate prosecution, U.S. Assistant Attorney General John Demers said China uses “national programs, like the ‘Thousand Talents,’ to solicit and reward the theft of our nation’s trade secrets and intellectual property.”
In a 35-page report published in 2018, the Donald Trump administration said scientists who participate in the Thousand Talents Plan Beijing launched in 2008 “may receive lucrative and prestigious positions at premier Chinese research institutes, labs, or universities.”
