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Dr. Qingyun Sun, of Morgantown, was sentenced Friday to three years of probation, with the first four months on home confinement, after defrauding West Virginia University and filing a false tax return, both offenses arising out of his official travel to China, U.S. Attorney Bill Powell announced.
Sun, 58, pleaded guilty to a two-count information charging him with wire fraud and filing a false tax return in July 2020. Sun was a Chinese National employed by WVU as an associate professor and the associate director of the United States-China Energy Center at the University.
As a part of his employment at WVU, through the West Virginia Development Office, he also acted as the governor’s assistant for China affairs. He was also employed by Synfuels Americas Corp., an energy conversion technology provider of coal-to-liquids and gas-to-liquids processes in Sterling, Va., but headquartered in Beijing, China. From July 2011 to May 2015, Peabody Energy Generation Holding Co., based in St. Louis, Mo., paid consulting fees to Energy United LC, a consulting business Sun established in 2005. The scheme involved Sun’s operation of his consulting business through Energy United.
In 2015, Sun traveled to China on behalf of WVU and the West Virginia Development Office to prepare for an upcoming visit to China by WVU representatives and to lead a West Virginia industrial delegation for a coal expo in Beijing. Sun booked both a coach flight and a business class flight for this trip, submitting a request for reimbursement to WVU for the coach flight, and submitting a request for reimbursement to Synfuels Americas for the business flight. Sun only used the business class ticket for his trip.
In 2014, Sun filed a joint income tax return with his wife, grossly overstating his business-related travel expenses, when a large sum of those travel expenses were paid for by a State Purchasing Card, or reimbursed to him by WVU and Peabody Energy. He also failed to state any financial interest in, or authority over, a financial account in a foreign country. Sun had an interest in numerous financial accounts in China.
As a part of the plea agreement, Sun has agreed to pay restitution in the amount of $6,233.12 in full to WVU. Sun is no longer employed by WVU.
Sun was also ordered to pay for the four months of home confinement monitoring as a part of his sentencing.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jarod J. Douglas prosecuted the case on behalf of the government. The FBI and the Internal Revenue Service investigated. WVU cooperated in the investigation of this case.
Senior U.S. District Judge Irene M. Keeley presided.
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