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Chunzai Wang 王春在

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Legal Docket by CourtListener: United States v. Wang (Case No. 1:17-cr-20449)
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Dr. Chunzai Wang is a naturalized U.S. citizen born in China.  Dr. Wang was a research oceanographer in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). He is one of the foremost experts on ocean-atmosphere interaction, climate change, and hurricanes in the world. He received the NOAA Research Scientist of the Year award in 2012 and 2013.

On June 29, 2017, Dr. Wang was indicted and accused of fraudulent claims and illegal supplement of his federal salary
.  The total amount was about $2,000 over a three-year period to help students there on research involving climate change.  

Dr. Wang reached agreement with the government on one count and was sentenced to time served, which was one night in jail.  The presiding judge criticized the government for its overreach in prosecuting Dr. Wang in the sentencing hearing transcript. 

In particular, U.S. District Court Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga remarked in the hearing, "given the nature of Mr. Wang's contributions to an area that is at the forefront of our daily review of news, climate change, given the nature of the research he conducts and – and the information he supplies and how valuable it is to all of us, certainly he made certain mistakes here, but it's regrettable that it could not have been taken care of, I think, by some type of pretrial diversion so that he would not be an adjudicated felon." She added, " And I wish you and your family the best of luck," and reminded him that "you are a citizen of this country and should be able to come back and enjoy time with your family."

Dr. Wang is now a resercher for the Chinese Academy of Sciences.  


The same security agent at the Department of Commerce (DOC) conducted the investigations and led to the separate indictments of Dr. Wang and Sherry Chen, a hydrologist in the National Weather Service, which is part of NOAA.  A credible whistleblower letter that claims to be from a DOC employee in the Office of Security was submitted to the DOC Office of Inspector General on August 15, 2018.  It alleges abuse of authority and targeting of Sherry Chen and employees of Asian ancestry in DOC. It provides the identity of offices, individual names, and specific incidents.  However, the DOC Office of Inspector General has been silent since the whistleblower letter was submitted.  

Links and References

National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration: Honors and Awards for 2012 and 2013
2018/08/15 Sherry Chen Legal Defense Fund: Cover Letter for Submission of Whistleblower Letter
2018/03/08 Washington Post opinion: America’s new — and senseless — Red Scare  
2018/03/02 Committee of 100: Committee of 100 Expresses Concern About Unfair Prosecution of Chunzai Wang
2018/02/22 DOJ: Former Research Oceanographer Sentenced for Accepting a Salary from the People’s Republic of China
2018/02/20 U.S. District Court Southern District of Florida: Transcript on Change of  Plea Before The Honorable Cecilia M. Altonaga, U.S. District Judge

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APA Justice Task Force is a non-partisan platform to build a sustainable ecosystem that addresses racial profiling concerns and to facilitate, inform, and advocate on selected issues related to justice and fairness for the Asian Pacific American community.
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