Doesn’t pay to fraud the government. The real question is why it took so long (4 years).
Defendant submitted false data and information instead of building and testing experimental components
OAKLAND – S. Darin Kinion, Ph.D., was sentenced today to 18 months’ imprisonment for submitting false data and reports to defraud the United States in connection with a quantum computing research program announced United States Attorney Brian J. Stretch, U.S. Department of Energy Special Agent in Charge of the Office of the Inspector General Scott Berenberg, and Inspector General of the Intelligence Community I. Charles McCullough III. The sentence follows a guilty plea entered June 14, 2016, in which Kinion acknowledged submitting false data and reports to the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (“IARPA”) of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in a scheme to defraud the government out of money intended to fund research.
According to his plea agreement, Kinion, 44, of Lafayette, Calif., admitted that between 2008 and 2012, he received millions of dollars of funding from IARPA to design, build, and test experimental components in the field of quantum computing at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (“LLNL”). Nevertheless, rather than build and test the experimental components, Kinion presented to the government false and fraudulent data and information in a scheme to defraud IARPA into thinking he had performed the work. In order to build and test the experimental components, Kinion would have had to set up and operate certain equipment. Kinion requested funds from IARPA to purchase the equipment, claimed he had used the equipment successfully to build and test experimental components, and submitted reports and information in support of these claims. Kinion, however, never setup nor operated the equipment.