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Judge offers to release Chinese researcher on the issue of visa fraud
On Friday, a federal judge in California decided to free from prison a university scholar convicted of lying about her links to the Chinese military and the Communist Party in order to obtain access to the United States.
"You 're going to get a big break here," U.S. Judge Kendall Newman told Dr. Juan Tang at the Sacramento hearing, Sacramento Bee reported.
Kendall said he was happy to let Tang stay with a Chinese emigrant who did not know the woman but promised to put up $750,000 in home equity as a bond, the Bee added.
It could take until late next week to complete the bond paperwork.
Tang could also be granted release from prison because the lawyer is likely to petition another federal judge to reconsider the ruling, the paper said.
Former Chinese cancer researcher at the University of California Davis is charged with a visa fraud lawsuit. She has been held in the Principal Prison of Sacramento County without bail since 23 July.
Tang wrongly said that he had no links with the Chinese People's Liberation Army-Air Force or the Communist Party of China, the authorities argued.
She was planning to return to China in June, when FBI agents turned up at her door to ask her questions. They've confiscated her passport. Since escaping to the Chinese consulate in San Francisco for a month, she was considered a fugitive.
Tang is one of the Chinese academics working at American universities who have been charged with criminal charges.
University of California Los Angeles researcher from China has been charged with damaging evidence in a criminal probe, prosecutors said Friday.
Guan Lei, 29, of Alhambra, was charged with one federal count for allegedly tossing a damaged hard drive into a dumpster outside his apartment to foil an FBI investigation of the researcher that started in July, according to an FBI affidavit filed earlier this week with a criminal complaint.
According to the affidavit, Guan is under investigation for the alleged transfer of important information or technological details to the Chinese Army and its National Security Technology University.
The university is suspected to procure U.S.-origin facilities for the production of supercomputers with nuclear explosive applications, according to the affidavit.
The lawsuit also argued that Guan was being investigated for reportedly wrongly denying his involvement with the Chinese army on his 2018 visa application.
Guan later admitted that he had enrolled in military school and wore military uniforms while at the National University of Defense Technology, according to the affidavit.
Guan is due to be arrested next month. It was not immediately clear if he had a lawyer who might act on his behalf.
