Harvard and Yale universities investigated for possible non-disclosure
of foreign money
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[February 13, 2020]
By Brendan O'Brien
(Reuters) - The U.S. Department of
Education said on Wednesday it has opened an investigation into whether
the universities of Harvard and Yale failed to report hundreds of
millions of dollars in foreign gifts and contracts as required by law.
Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, may not have reported at
least $375 million in foreign money over the last four years, the
department said in a statement.
"This is about transparency," U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos
said in the statement. "If colleges and universities are accepting
foreign money and gifts, their students, donors, and taxpayers deserve
to know how much and from whom."
Federal law requires most colleges and universities to report gifts from
and contracts with foreign sources that are more than $250,000 twice a
year.
Education department records over the last three decades show U.S.
universities and colleges have reported more than $6.6 billion in
donations from Qatar, China, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
"This sum may be significantly underestimated," the education department
said.
Yale received a request from the department on Tuesday for records of
certain gifts and contracts from foreign sources under Section 117 of
the Higher Education Act of 1965, said university spokeswoman Karen
Peart.
"We are reviewing the request and preparing to respond to it," she said.
The education department said that it is also concerned that Harvard
University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, lacked the proper controls over
foreign money and may have not fully reported all donations and
contracts coming from outside the United States.
Harvard did not respond to a request for comment.
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The exterior of The Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at
Harvard University. The head of the department, Dr. Charles Lieber,
is charged with lying to the federal authorities in connection with
aiding China, at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts,
U.S. January 30, 2020. REUTERS/Katherine Taylor

The education department did not put a dollar amount of what Harvard
potentially did not report.
Two weeks ago, Charles Lieber, the chair of Harvard University’s
Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, and two Chinese
nationals who were researchers at Boston University and a Boston
hospital were charged by the U.S. Justice Department with lying
about their purported links to the Chinese government.

Lieber said that Harvard lacked adequate institutional controls for
effective oversight and tracking of very large donations, according
to the education department.
In a report about China's impact on U.S. education, a Senate
committee on investigations described foreign spending on U.S.
schools as “a black hole” because colleges and universities
routinely fail to comply with the law.
(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Chicago; editing by Grant McCool)
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