Happy Nice Mall

PUBCHEM

Prior to this email, Rogers had proposed to split CFB, dropping the sci-fi concepts of bio-battery and sugar-to-hydrogen to Zhang, while Rogers would commercialize the more recent rare sugars. Zhang dismissed the idea, and it came as no surprise that Rogers did not renew his CEO contract, later citing his “failure to raise a single investment dollar.” But Rogers, who held a small stake in the company as part of his compensation, was not ready to walk away. At the end of December 2015, he sent an email to the CFB citing the “glaring” discrepancy between statements made by Zhang on the NSF grant applications while he was the company’s interim CEO.

As an example, Rogers pointed out that although Zhang told him the rights to the manufacturing process for sugar phosphates were Chinese, one application indicated that CFB had the rights and would commercialize the process in the United States. “If there’s a problem,” Rogers warned, “I can’t look the other way. Of course, any smell of grant fraud will cause potential licensees and potential investors to flee.”

In the email, Rogers reiterated CFB’s proposal to hand over the rights to another rare sugar called tagatose and arabinose, as well as the sugar phosphate process, to a new venture it plans to establish. But he wanted to act fast, ideally within a week. “Please let me know if you need more time, but time is running out in several ways,” he wrote.

Zhang again refused to split the company, and expired on January 6, 2016. Rogers founded Bonumose in the state of Virginia and nine days later sent an email to the NSF’s Office of the Inspector General entitled “Report of possible NSF grant fraud.”

Excerpted from apparently cursed emails between Zhang and Rogers. In a letter sent in the summer of 2015, Zhang writes: “Experiments on the sugar phosphate project were conducted by one of my collaborators and my satellite lab in China. The technology transfer will only take place in China. If funded by this project [the NSF], most of the money will be used to fund other project at CFB.” This meant promising tagatose research has yet to receive any official NSF funding.

Regarding a second NSF proposal for inositol, another followed a similar path: “Almost all experiments … completed. Chun You [CFB’s chief scientist] and I have applied for a Chinese patent on my behalf, I have no affiliation with the CFB… If funded, most [the NSF money] It will be used to support other projects for the CFB.”

It is strictly and expressly forbidden to use government funds for any purpose other than those for which they were given. Within weeks, the NSF began its investigation and suspended all payments to the CFB.