The former Los Alamos National Laboratory physicist indicted for lying about connections to a Chinese government-sponsored talent-recruiting program is scheduled to be tried starting June 22, 2020, in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque, N.M.
Turab Lookman has pleaded not guilty to three counts of fraud and false statements for allegedly lying to the Department of Energy and the National Background Investigations Bureau within the federal Office of Personnel Management.
Lookman was accepted into China’s Thousand Talents program sometime around 2017-2018, the U.S. Justice Department alleges. In its May indictment, Justice said Lookman lied about this relationship during a routine review of his security clearance, answering “no” when asked whether a foreign entity had offered him a job.
Until his indictment, Lookman worked in Los Alamos’ Theoretical Division, where he contributed to research on materials design.
According to an official Chinese website for the program, the aim of Thousand Talents is to “gather the global wisdom and create the China great exploit.” The Donald Trump administration charatcterizes Thousand Talents as an organized effort to steal U.S. intellectual property by providing American citizens with prestigious positions in Chinese institutions, lush living quarters in China, travel expenses, and research funding.
Lookman is not the first former government worker to be busted for a connection with Thousand Talents. In 2018, a federal judge in Minnesota sentenced a former employee of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Chunzai Wang, to time served in connection with a relationship to Thousand Talents. Wang accepted a salary from the Chinese government while working for the Commerce Department’s civilian weather agency, according to the Justice Department.
Among others, Thousand Talents aims to recruit non-Chinese experts in technical and financial fields who can “work for more than 9 months per year in China for 3 consecutive years.” These “foreign experts” can earn between roughly $575,000 and $860,000 in research subsidies for their work, plus “preferential” residences, medical care, insurance, and housing, according to the website.
The Department of Energy has banned its employees and contractors from working with Thousand Talents.
