FBI raids home of prominent computer scientist who has gone incommunicado

real_aurgathor

InternetJeff Which begs the question… if he left rather abruptly, there might have been an underlying motive for him doing so. It may all come out eventually.

Yes, there were underlying motives for witch hunts and burning the witches, too….. 😐️

real_aurgathor

meznaros where there’s smoke there’s fire

Or someone is just blowing smoke…..

Context

It wouldn’t be the first time foreign academics have come under federal scrutiny. During Trump’s first term, the Department of Justice launched the so-called “China Initiative,” aimed at uncovering economic espionage and IP theft by researchers linked to China.

The effort was widely seen as a failure, with over 50 percent of investigations dropped, some professors wrongly accused, and a few were ultimately found guilty of nothing more than hoarding pirated porn.

The fact that he is not accused of much of anything except possibly misrepresenting his CV is very telling.

Indiana U. Law Professor Alex Tanford, the union chapter’s president, told CNBC in an interview Monday that Wang contacted him earlier this month as the university conducted what had first appeared to be a “routine” investigation over a grant application and how he reported a publication of his curriculum vitae.

assailant

real_aurgathor The fact that he is not accused of much of anything except possibly misrepresenting his CV is very telling.

The FBI does not search your house if you are ‘not accused of much of anything’. There is a lot that is yet to be reported.

Somewhat-Reticent

assailant The FBI does not search your house if you are ‘not accused of much of anything’.

Unless National Security requires said denial for investigation duration.

real_aurgathor

assailant The FBI does not search your house if you are ‘not accused of much of anything’.

LOL. For the most part you’re just repeating what I wrote, but with some added innuendo. 😉

I know very well the FBI is exceedingly unlikely to search someone’s houses about some CV related discrepancy. However, the fact that nothing was disclosed is likely to be indicative of the amount of assumptions vs. evidence that the searches were based on.

There is a lot that is yet to be reported.

And do you have any information on that “yet to be reported” matter? Aside from what can be assumed based on his birth place and nationality, that is.

In any case, sinophobia seems to be very popular lately for a number of reasons, and this case can probably be chalked up to that; unless, of course, there is some (f)actual evidence of serious wrongdoing by Xiaofeng Wang.

assailant

real_aurgathor LOL. For the most part you’re just repeating what I wrote, but with some added innuendo

This is exactly what you wrote…….

real_aurgathor The fact that he is not accused of much of anything except possibly misrepresenting his CV is very telling.

It’s not ‘telling’. You or anyone else does not know what he’s being investigated for.

real_aurgathor However, the fact that nothing was disclosed is likely to be indicative of

Of nothing at this point. It is common for the FBI to keep details of an active investigation confidential.

Then there is this…..

real_aurgathor sinophobia

Same old irrelevant shtick. Can’t discuss so call names.

WebinTheWorld

I just think something is wrong about this. I dont understand how they could be allowed to erase a tenured professor.

assailant

WebinTheWorld I dont understand how they could be allowed to erase a tenured professor.

As far as his firing the dude left the country and took a job abroad as has been reported. Do you think they should have kept him on the payroll?

Somewhat-Reticent

Two weeks’ quiet prior - isn’t it only 2 days for Missing Person(s)?
“There is a Memorandum of Understanding between Indiana University and the National University of Singapore.”
Unattributed rumor notwithstanding, there’s an institutional relationship.

px_eliezer_

assailant As far as his firing the dude left the country and took a job abroad as has been reported. Do you think they should have kept him on the payroll?

No, but that’s not the same as making him an un-person.

real_aurgathor

assailant As far as his firing the dude left the country and took a job abroad as has been reported. Do you think they should have kept him on the payroll?

A very typical rubbish by re-ordering events to disguise the real cause. He most likely wasn’t stripped off his tenure because he took another job – he probably took another position because of what happened in the US.

Somewhat-Reticent

Universities are easily terrified by casting certain aspersions.
Much easier to delete current links and restore when kerfuffle settles.

real_aurgathor

WebinTheWorld I don’t understand how they could be allowed to erase a tenured professor.

The ‘invisible hand’ doing some hand-waving from above….

assailant

real_aurgathor A very typical rubbish by re-ordering events to disguise the real cause.

Really?

real_aurgathor He most likely wasn’t stripped off his tenure because he took another job

It looks like that’s exactly what happened.

The university has removed the professor’s profile from its website, while the Indiana Daily Student reports Wang was axed the same day the Feds swooped. It’s said the college learned the professor had taken a job at a university in Singapore, leading to the boffin’s termination by his US employer.

https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/31/indiana_cybersecurity_professor_fbi

His taking another job abroad led to his firing. Who is re-ordering events now?

I see you edited your post. Wise. I got the original in my email. Tip: The first thing you post goes out on email. I won’t quote what you originally wrote.

GrumpyCanadian

assailant Simply accepting a job at another institution doesn’t warrant this level secrecy, nor entirely removing both profiles from the Web site. When a favourite professor of mine left for a university in the United States, not only did the university he left not scrub his presence on the Web site, they had a referral to his new location, where he had left contact information.

Furthermore, leaving doesn’t prompt a federal investigation, raiding one’s home or seizing property. There is more to this story, and it’s made all the more suspicious by the shroud of secrecy. The next, critically-important, questions are: Did he ever make it to Singapore? Has he fled the country? Have they been taken into custody? If so, for legitimate or illegitimate reasons?

Somewhat-Reticent

GrumpyCanadian These assumptions may be quite erroneous.
The full story may never be revealed, or at least hidden for decades.

GrumpyCanadian

Somewhat-Reticent Except that I’m not making assumptions; I’m asking what I think are legitimate questions. Under normal circumstances, simply taking a position elsewhere shouldn’t prompt this sort of treatment, as demonstrated by the case of my professor who left for the United States, and the recent case of the professors who moved from U.S. universities to the University of Toronto. None of them had anything similar happen, so such questions are justified. I suspect that this information will not be shared soon, if ever, but it will be awfully suspicious if they never turn up, in Singapore or elsewhere, and we never even hear the details of the sequence of events in question. Clearly, at least one of the three parties involved (university, government(s), professor) is hiding something.

Somewhat-Reticent

Oh, I agree it’s unusual, and the secrecy adds spice.
Query: were the other professors in the same field?

GrumpyCanadian

Somewhat-Reticent The three that were recently in the news were not in related fields at all. The person who left for the United States (years ago) was in a field that is somewhat related. I don’t know if he stayed there, or if it was a temporary appointment, and has since come home (or moved to another state).

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