SIU professor faces federal prison for lying to IRS, failing to report foreign account
A math professor at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale was convicted by a federal jury of lying to Internal Revenue Service agents about having a bank account in China.
Dr. Mingqing Xiao was convicted on three counts of making false or fraudulent statements on his tax returns and one count of failure to file a report of a foreign bank account.
According to court documents filed in the U.S. Court for the Southern District of Illinois, Xiao opened a foreign bank account at Ping AN Bank in China in 2016 and received monthly deposits into the account from Shenzhenalo University in Shenzhen, China from 2016-2020.
Some of the money was linked to different sources in China. The account held more than $100,000, the complaint stated.
The law requires U.S., taxpayers to report any foreign bank accounts they have on their federal income tax returns. Additionally, the law requires individuals with foreign accounts of more than $10,000 at any time during a given year to file a Foreign Bank Account Report with the U.S. Treasury Department, according to a release from U.S. Attorney Steven Weinhoeft’s office.
“There are foreign entities that exploit American universities and grant agencies,” Weinhoeft said. “To guard against this abuse, the National Science Foundation NSF requires grant applicants to disclose any conflicting activities, including foreign activities, as a condition of receiving federal funding.”
U.S. citizens also are obligated to disclose any foreign bank accounts they may have, Weinhoeft said.
“The evidence established that Dr. Xiao concealed foreign work and hid more than $100,00 of foreign assets in an account in China and he was properly prosecuted and held accountable,” Weinhoeft said.
Two additional wire fraud counts levied against Xiao by federal prosecutors were dismissed by the court. Those three charges were connected to a grant Xiao got from the National Science Foundation.
Xiao is facing up to three years in federal prison and an additional year of supervised release for making the false statements to the IRS and up to five years for failing to file an FBAR with an additional three years supervised release. He also has to pay a fine of up to $250,000.
Xio will be sentenced before Judge Staci M. Yandle on August 11.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Peter Reed and Scott Verseman, of Weinhoeft’s office and Trial Attorney Derek Shugert of the National Security Division of the Department of Justice, prosecuted the case.
