Man pleads guilty to fraud over coronavirus research funding

David M. Morens, a former employee at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, or NIAID, on Tuesday pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit offenses and to defraud the United States. The charge stemmed from his participation in a scheme to restore U.S. government funding for bat coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, after the funding was canceled during the COVID-19 pandemic. Morens tried to evade government records rules and conceal his communications about coronavirus research grants, according to the Justice Department.

Morens was a senior adviser in NIAID’s Office of the Director from 2006 to 2022. According to his guilty plea, he helped two accomplices attempt to pressure the National Institutes of Health into restoring funding for the research. As part of their plan, they also pledged to suppress the narrative that COVID-19 leaked from a lab, according to the Justice Department.

Morens and the others agreed to use his personal email account, rather than his work account, to discuss their efforts so that investigators couldn’t find out what was happening through Freedom of Information Act requests. The emails included nonpublic government information and communications to NIAID officials, which constitute federal records under law, according to the Justice Department. Morens also received illegal gifts for his participation in the scheme.

What penalties will Morens likely face? His maximum sentence would be five years in prison, but the Justice Department noted that actual sentences for federal crimes are typically lighter than the maximum penalties. A federal district judge would sentence him after assessing all statutory factors, the department said.

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