A former Penn State professor has pleaded guilty to defrauding federal agencies of $3 million in research grant money, according to a news release.
Craig Grimes, 55, could face up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted. Prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania allege Grimes defrauded the National Institutes of Health, made false statements to the U.S. Department of Energy and laundered proceeds he received from the NIH.
Grimes lived in Boalsburg when he was a professor of electrical engineering at Penn State and ran the company SentechBiomed. He now lives in Raleigh, N.C.
Grimes received a $1.2 million grant from the NIH for research on gases in patients’ blood that could help detect the presence of a disease in infants. Prosecutors allege Grimes promised to use about $509,000 for research at Hershey Medical Center but that he never paid for that work and that the clinical trials never took place.
Grimes is also charged with making false statements to the Department of Energy when he applied for a $1.9 million grant from a program funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Grimes allegedly said he hadn’t received any other funding, when he had received a National Science Foundation grant.
The third count charges Grimes with laundering money he got from the NIH.
Grimes was employed at Penn State from July 1, 2001, to Dec. 31, 2010.
