Posted on 09/20/2011 11:08:11 AM PDT by markomalley
The president of local biotechnology firm GenPhar is accused of defrauding the federal government out of at least $3.6 million the company received to research vaccines against deadly diseases.
The charges are contained in federal indictments unsealed today that also accuse GenPhar president Jian-Yun Dong and his estranged wife of making at least $31,000 in illegal campaign contributions to U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham and his political action committee.
Dong, who also is chief executive officer of GenPhar, is accused of submitting false claims to federal agencies, converting grant funds to his own use and committing wire fraud to scam the federal government, according to the indictment.
It appears most of the money came from a $4.2 million GenPhar received in 2005 to work on a vaccine for the Marburg virus.
The indictment alleges that Dong and an unnamed co-defendant falsified grant applications, progress reports, time sheets and other documents sent to federal agencies. They then used federal money for construction costs, lobbying fees, and travel and personal expenses not allowed under the grant program, the indictment states.
Dong reportedly created another company, Vaxima Inc., to help him divert federal cash for his own use, authorities said.
Dong and his estranged wife, Danher Wang, could not be reached for comment today, and it could not immediately be determined if they are represented by attorneys.
Dong and Wang are charged with conspiring to make illegal campaign donations by using other people’s names to funnel money from a foreign national, federal officials said. They are also accused of making illegal contributions after they exceeded their own maximum donation amounts, officials said.
The indictment alleges that the couple conspired to funnel more than $16,000 to Graham’s campaign fund in 2007 and at least $15,000 to “The Fund for America’s Future,” a political action committee operated by the South Carolina Republican.
Federal campaign laws limited individual contributions to candidates to $4,600 while the ceiling for individual PAC contributions stood at $5,000. Having both hit those limits, the pair allegedly employed illegal means to fulfill a commitment to raise $25,000 for Graham’s 2008 campaign, the indictment said.
Dong allegedly persuaded a German shareholder in GenPhar to transfer $36,000 from a Frankfurt bank account in three payments to him, his wife and a company worker. The couple then recruited conduits, including their minor daughter, family members and other GenPhar employees, to donate that money to Graham in their names, the indictment states.
In September 2007, Dong sent an email to his German connection commenting on a recent development in obtaining government funds for a GenPhar project, noting that “This is your money at work,” the indictment states.
In addition, Dong is accused of lying to law enforcement agents about the donations and trying to illegally influence the testimony of a government witness in the case, authorities said.
In the grant fraud indictment, the maximum sentences Dong faces for wire fraud is 30 years imprisonment on each count, with a maximum fine of $250,000 per count. Dong faces sentences of up to 10 years for the other charges contained in this indictment. Both Dong and Wang face maximum sentences of five years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine for each count of campaign finance fraud, and Dong faces an additional maximum sentence of 20 years as to the witness tampering charges in the first indictment.
In June 2010, GenPhar laid off its 15 employees as completion of its new $33 million headquarters fell behind schedule. At the time, Dong blamed construction delays for the 50,000-square-foot project on the town, which town officials denied.
Until the layoffs, GenPhar was located in a small office off Long Point Road. Many of its former employees were scientists engaged in research for production of vaccines for deadly diseases, such as Ebola and Marburg, for the Department of Defense.
GenPhar said it hoped to employ up to 300 people at its new facility behind The Market at Oakland shopping center on U.S. Highway 17. The company has claimed that its vaccines for Ebola, Marburg and a combination of Ebola and Marburg proved 100 percent effective in Army animal studies, and human trials are planned in collaboration with the Army.
Oh, I thought this was the firm Obama “didn’t know” he invested in.
Eh? Oh, yes, using that as a tactic would cloud the Solyndra scandal, and no doubt we’ll be seeing a lot of that here in the near future. That what you mean?
I just bet that they inspected this pile of money to make sure that there were no Obama Stimulus dollars mixed in.
“Because I ,believe “vaccines” are poison and I Have for years.”
What scientific proof do you have to support your belief?
Heh heh heh...
It was Swine Flu in Carter’s day. Bird Flu was more recent.
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