Court voids last conviction of Kansas researcher in case that started as Chinese espionage probe

Associated Press

A federal appeals court has reversed the conviction of a researcher who was accused of hiding work he did in China while employed at the University of Kansas. Feng “Franklin” Tao was convicted in 2022 of three counts of wire fraud and one count of making a materially false statement. U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson threw out the wire fraud convictions a few months later but let the false statement conviction stand. But the appeals court ruled Thursday that the government failed to provide sufficient evidence that Tao’s failure to disclose his potential conflict of interest actually mattered.