By William Kates
The Associated Press
A former Cornell University researcher was accused of stealing biological materials from the Ivy League school and attempting to return with them to his native China July 29.
Yin Qingqiang, 38, who had an expired Chinese passport, attempted to pass through a security checkpoint with his wife and daughter Sunday afternoon at Syracuse, N.Y.’s Hancock International Airport. When security workers conducted a random luggage search, they found more than 100 glass vials and containers containing unknown substances, authorities said.
Qingqiang was charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States government by transporting stolen property and one count of conspiracy to commit fraud in interstate or foreign commerce. Each charge carries a penalty of up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
U.S. Magistrate David Peoples remanded Qingqiang to the custody of U.S. marshals Monday and scheduled a pretrial detention hearing for Friday morning. Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Baxter argued that Qingqiang was a risk to flee the country.
Yin was employed as a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Animal Science in Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences from July 15, 2001 until July 14 of this year, when the university decided not to renew his one-year contract, citing poor job performance.
According to the government’s complaint, Qingqiang was assisting Cornell scientists in the development of an enzyme known as “phytase,” a supplement to feed livestock that researchers hope will increase the rate at which livestock can digest minerals and reduce phosphorous excretion in its waste.
Environmental pollution from excess phosphorous in animal waste, especially from swine and poultry, is a serious problem for farmers.
The Cornell research was supported by a federal research grant. Although the phytase enzyme is not yet commercially available, Cornell researchers have two patents pending and are in contract talks for its manufacture. Cornell scientists project that it will one day be a highly valuable commercial commodity.
Qingqiang was looking for a research job in China and was offering to bring with him the various yeasts, bacteria and fungi related to commercial phytase production, the government alleged.
As part of its evidence, prosecutors included a letter written by Qingqiang that Cornell officials discovered in June on a public computer in the laboratory where he worked.
After finding the letter, Cornell officials said they warned Qingqiang that the materials were university property and he would be prosecuted for stealing if he tried to remove any.
After being detained at the airport Sunday, Qingqiang told authorities that he was traveling with his wife and 4-year-old daughter to Shanghai, where he was to meet a professor of animal nutrition from the University of Henan.
Because several of the vials were leaking, Qingqiang and his family, as well as an ambulance driver and three policemen who came in contact with the vials, were treated for exposure at the university hospital as a precaution. None of the seven, however, displayed any symptoms, hospital spokeswoman Doretta Royer said.
The daughter was held overnight for observation, Royer added.
Prior to treatment, all seven were decontaminated by the Syracuse Fire Department, which set up special showers in the parking lot outside the hospital’s emergency room, she said.
Police charged the girl’s mother, Zheng Quihong, 36, with endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor.
The state Health Department’s Wadsworth Laboratory in Albany will examine the substance to determine whether it was non-hazardous, said Dr. Lloyd Novick, Onondaga County’s health commissioner. The results of those tests were expected Tuesday.
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