BY TYLER DURDEN
WEDNESDAY, JUL 16, 2025 – 10:35 PM
Authored by Bill Pan via The Epoch Times,
The U.S. Department of Education has launched an investigation into the University of Michigan (UM) over concerns about undisclosed or improperly disclosed foreign funding.
In a letter sent on July 15, the Education Department’s legal wing gave the university 30 days to hand over more than five years’ worth of records related to foreign donations, foreign research collaboration, international students and scholars, as well as the names and contact details of university officials overseeing those areas.
The letter states that since January 2021, UM has submitted foreign funding disclosures totaling approximately $375 million, but with about $86 million of that money reported late, in “possible violation” of federal law mandating institutions to disclose foreign gifts and contracts valued at $250,000 or more each year.
“As the recipient of federal research funding, UM has both a moral and legal obligation to be completely transparent about its foreign partnerships,” Chief Investigative Counsel Paul Moore said in a statement on Tuesday.
“Unfortunately, tens of millions of dollars in foreign funding in UM’s disclosure reports have been reported in an untimely manner and appear to erroneously identify some of UM’s foreign funders as ‘non-governmental entities’ even though the foreign funders seem to be directly affiliated with foreign governments.”
Moore’s letter also cited two recent federal criminal cases involving Chinese nationals affiliated with UM.
In one case, a doctoral candidate from Huazhong University of Science and Technology was arrested on June 8 and was charged with smuggling roundworm-related materials into the United States.
In a separate case that same month, a doctoral student from Zhejiang University and her boyfriend were accused of smuggling restricted biological materials into the United States. A criminal complaint filed on June 2 alleged that she received funding from the Chinese communist regime to study Fusarium graminearum, a fungus that can cause head blight in crops such as wheat and maize, and is considered a potential agroterrorism agent.
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