CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — A former faculty member at West Virginia University will
spend three years on probation for fraud linked to travel for his
job.
Dr. Qingyun Sun, 58, of Morgantown, was sentenced Friday in U.S.
District Court after entering guilty pleas in July to a two-count information
that accused him of wire fraud and filing a false tax return.
Federal
prosecutors said Sun was a Chinese National who had worked as both a WVU
associate professor and associate director of the United States-China Energy
Center based at WVU.
Along with those roles, he also acted as an
assistant to West Virginia’s governor on China affairs through the West Virginia
Development Office and operated a consulting business called Energy United. One
of his clients was Peabody Energy Generation Holding
Company.
Additionally, Sun was an employee of Synfuels Americas
Corporation, an energy conversion technology provider.
Synfuels Americas
is headquartered in Beijing, China and specializes in coal-to-liquids and
gas-to-liquids energy conversion processes and also has a location in Sterling,
Virginia.
In general, Sun was accused of using his various positions to
bill multiple times for the same expense.
In 2015, investigators said he
booked two tickets for travel to China for prep work for a trip from state
officials and only used one ticket but request reimbursements from both WVU and
Synfuels Americas.
In 2014, the allegation was the joint income tax
return he filed with wife “grossly overstated his business-related travel
expenses” since most of those travel expenses were paid for with a state
purchasing care or reimbursements from WVU and Peabody Energy.
There were
also issues with his disclosures about financial accounts in China, according to
federal prosecutors.
As part of sentence, the first four months of
probation for Dr. Sun will be spent on home confinement.
Sun has also
agreed to pay $6,233 in full restitution to WVU, his former employer.