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Former UA professor gets one year in federal prison for lying to FBI agents about patents in China

Former U of A professor Simon Saw-Teong Ang was sentenced to a year in federal prison after lying to an FBI agent about patents he held in China.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — A former University of Arkansas (U of A) professor has been sentenced to federal prison for lying to federal agents about patents for inventions he had in China.

According to court documents, 65-year-old Simon Saw-Teong Ang will serve 12 months and one day followed by one year of supervised release after being convicted of one count of making a false statement to the FBI. In January 2022, Ang pleaded guilty to the crime. 

Ang filed 24 patents in the People's Republic of China (PRC) under his name and Chinese birth name. The U of A, where he was employed, required all staff to give the university "full and complete" disclosures of inventions. The college's policy also noted that the university, not the individual inventor, would own all inventions created.

Court records state that this policy was established “in furtherance of the commitment of the University to the widest possible distribution of the benefits of University Research, the protection of Inventions resulting from such research, and the development of Inventions for the public good.” 

Despite this policy, court documents state that Ang did not disclose his Chinese patents to the U of A, and when interviewed by an FBI agent, he lied about his involvement in the inventions. Specifically, when asked whether his name would be listed as “the inventor” of numerous patents in China, Ang denied being the inventor, despite knowing he was. 

Ang received several talent awards from the PRC government, which he chose not to list on the university's annual conflict of interest disclosure forms, court records state. 

“Mr. Ang has been used as a proxy by the people’s republic of China and the Chinese communist party for their own purposes and their own ends. The real villain in this instance is the Chinese communist party and the People’s Republic of China which continues to steal intellectual property from the United States,” said FBI special agent Jim Dawson. 

Ang’s attorney Drew Ledbetter says he doesn’t like that his client has to go to jail over this, but it was a compromise. 

“This is not the way Dr. Ang would’ve liked for his career to end but it is over, and he has been punished in ways that are intangible. Also, this trip to jail is just a drop in the bucket of the punishment he has received,” he said. 

Before Ang was sentenced, he told the court he sincerely apologized and accepted full responsibility. 

“For the folks that believe that Dr. Ang was a Chinese spy or somehow beholden to the Chinese government, I hope this shows them this is not true,” said Ledbetter. 

“We have an engineering professor with no criminal history who is now going to prison for this criminal conduct and certainly that sends a message to the community that we’ll continue to investigate these cases, we’ll continue to prosecute them and we’ll continue to do our very best that justice is applied equally to all people,” said Clay Fowlkes, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Arkansas. 

The maximum sentence he faced was five years in prison.

Further details about where he will serve his sentence have not been released, but he will report to prison by 1 p.m. on July 20.  

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