On Friday, the Department of Justice announced that Professor Hoau-Yan Wang has been indicted by a grand jury in Maryland for allegedly defrauding the U.S. National Institutes of Health of around $16 million.
According to a statement from the Justice Department, Wang held a tenured professorship at a public university while also working as an adviser and consultant for a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company based in Texas.
According to a statement by the DOJ, Wang is accused of participating in a scheme to falsify and fabricate scientific data in grant applications made to the NIH for himself and the biopharmaceutical company between May 2015 and April 2023.
The DOJ has reported that funding was sought from the NIH through fraudulent grant applications that used false data.
From 2017 to 2021, Wang’s laboratory work and salary were funded using grants totaling around $16 million. These grants were awarded based on funding requests that claimed to be for a potential treatment and diagnostic test for Alzheimer’s disease.
Wang is charged with a single count of committing major fraud against the United States, in addition to two counts of wire fraud and one count of making false statements. If found guilty, he could face severe penalties, including up to 10 years in prison for the major fraud charge, 20 years for each count of wire fraud, and up to five years for making false statements.
According to the Department of Justice, Wang is accused of falsifying scientific data in the NIH grant applications. These applications were related to the proposed drug and diagnostic test, specifically regarding how they were meant to function and their potential impact on certain indicators associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
