On January 28, 2020, Lieber was charged with two federal counts of making a materially false, fictitious and fraudulent statement about his links to a Chinese university. According to the Department of Justice's charging document, there are two counts of alleged crime committed by Lieber. First, during an interview by DoD on April 24, 2018, Lieber was asked whether he was involved in the Thousand Talents Program. Lieber stated that "he was never asked to participate in the Thousand Talents Program", adding that "he 'wasn't sure' how China categorized him." The DOJ believes that Lieber's statement was false, because an intercepted email dated June 27, 2012, from Wuhan University of Technology ("WUT") included a contract for Lieber to sign. Second, in November 2018, the NIH inquired of Harvard University about Lieber's foreign affiliations. In January 2019, Harvard interviewed Lieber and reported to NIH that Lieber "had no formal association with WUT" after 2012. The DOJ believes Lieber's statement was false. Lieber was charged with two counts of violating 18 U.S.C. § 1001(a)(2), one on April 24, 2018, and one in January 2019 for making the allegedly false statements.