Latest news with #foreignfunding
Zawya
23-07-2025
- Business
- Zawya
India investigates Walmart's Myntra for breaching foreign investment rules
India's financial crime agency said on Wednesday it had registered a case against Walmart's e-commerce fashion company Myntra for allegedly receiving 16.54 billion rupees ($191.52 million) of foreign funding in violation of the country's investment rules. The Enforcement Directorate said that Myntra was a wholesale retailer, but that the company sold the majority of its products to a retailer which then sold the products on Myntra's website. India's investment rules only allow foreign e-commerce companies to run a marketplace to connect buyers and sellers, and they cannot stock and sell goods to customers on their own. Other companies including Walmart's Flipkart and Amazon have often faced allegations of breaching such rules using certain sellers - allegations the companies have denied. Myntra did not immediately respond to a request for comment. ($1 = 86.3840 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Abinaya Vijayaraghavan. Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala and Mark Potter)
CNA
16-07-2025
- Politics
- CNA
US opens probe into University of Michigan's foreign funding
The United States Education Department said on Tuesday (Jul 15) it opened a foreign funding investigation into the University of Michigan while alleging it found "inaccurate and incomplete disclosures" in a review of the university's foreign reports. As part of the investigation, the department asked the university to share, within 30 days, tax records related to foreign funding, a list of foreign gifts, grants, and contracts with any foreign source, and other documents, the department said in a statement and in a letter to the university. The University of Michigan will cooperate fully with federal investigators and it takes its responsibility to comply with the law seriously, it said in a statement. "We strongly condemn any actions that seek to cause harm, threaten national security or undermine the university's critical public mission," the statement said. The Education Department said the university's research laboratories were "vulnerable to sabotage," citing charges brought by the US Justice Department against two Chinese nationals allegedly involving a University of Michigan lab. In June, US federal prosecutors accused two Chinese nationals of smuggling into the US a dangerous biological pathogen that they said had the potential to be used as an agricultural "terrorism weapon". Zunyong Liu, 34, a Chinese researcher, is alleged to have brought the pathogen into the US while visiting his girlfriend, Yunqing Jian, 33, in July 2024, according to an FBI complaint. The complaint said he admitted to smuggling in a fungus so he could conduct research on it at a University of Michigan laboratory where his girlfriend worked. However, experts have raised doubt about the FBI's claim that the crop fungus smuggled was a threat. In its statement, the Education Department said the university has received US$375 million in foreign funding since 2020 and was late in reporting US$86 million of that amount. US law requires universities to report donations from foreign sources exceeding US$250,000 in a year. President Donald Trump's administration has launched a widely condemned crackdown against top US universities over a range of issues including pro-Palestinian campus protests against Israel's war in Gaza, transgender rights, climate initiatives and diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
CNN
15-07-2025
- Politics
- CNN
University of Michigan faces federal investigation after arrest of 2 Chinese scientists
Washington (AP) — The University of Michigan is under federal scrutiny after two Chinese scientists linked to the school were separately charged with smuggling biological materials into the United States. The Education Department on Tuesday opened an investigation into the university's foreign funding, citing the pair of cases that were announced days apart in June. It said the 'highly disturbing criminal charges' raise concerns about Michigan's vulnerability to national security threats from China. 'Despite the University of Michigan's history of downplaying its vulnerabilities to malign foreign influence, recent reports reveal that UM's research laboratories remain vulnerable to sabotage,' said Paul Moore, chief investigative counsel of the department. President Donald Trump has made it a priority to increase transparency around foreign gifts and contracts to U.S. universities, especially those tied to China. Similar investigations have been opened at Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California, Berkeley. It joins efforts from Republicans in Congress who have urged universities to cut research ties with China, saying China exploits the relationships to steal technology. Michigan ended a partnership with a university in Shanghai in January amid pressure from House Republicans who called it a security risk. The new investigation demands financial records from Michigan, along with information about research collaborations with institutions outside the U.S. The Education Department accuses Michigan of being 'incomplete, inaccurate and untimely' in its public disclosures around funding from foreign sources. Federal authorities brought charges in June against a Chinese scientist and his girlfriend — who worked at a lab at the University of Michigan — after the FBI said it halted their effort to bring a toxic fungus into the United States. Days later, authorities arrested a Chinese scientist who was arriving in the U.S. and has been accused of shipping biological material to a laboratory at the University of Michigan. In June, the university said it condemned any actions that undermine national security and announced a review of protocols related to research security. In a letter to the university, however, the Education Department said some school officials have downplayed the vulnerability of research collaborations with Chinese institutions. It singles out Ann Chih Lin, director of the university's Center for Chinese Studies, who has publicly said the threat of technology theft from China is overstated. 'Lin's apparent indifference to the national security concerns of the largest single source of funding for UM's annual research expenditures — the American taxpayer — is particularly unsettling,' Education Department officials wrote. Federal law requires universities to report all gifts and contracts from foreign sources totaling $250,000 or more. The law went mostly unenforced until Trump's first term, when the Education Department opened a dozen inquiries into universities accused of underreporting foreign money. The Biden administration closed most of those cases, but the effort has recently been renewed. Many U.S. universities acknowledge a need to improve research security but caution against treating Chinese scholars with hostility and suspicion, saying only small numbers have been involved in espionage. Last year, House Republicans issued a report finding that hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding had gone toward research that ultimately boosted Chinese advancements in artificial intelligence, semiconductor technology and nuclear weapons. China is the second-largest country of origin for foreign students in the U.S., behind only India. In the 2023-24 academic year, more than 270,000 international students were from China, making up roughly a quarter of all foreign students in the United States.
New York Times
15-07-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Trump Administration Investigates U. of Michigan Over Foreign Funding
The Trump administration widened its investigation of large foreign donations at high-profile American universities on Tuesday, accusing the University of Michigan of improperly labeling some donations and disclosing millions in foreign funding 'in an untimely manner.' The Department of Education has opened similar investigations at Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California, Berkeley. The move comes as the administration carries out a pressure campaign to shift the ideological tilt of American higher education and discourage the enrollment of foreign students at universities. Amid that pressure campaign, the University of Michigan shut down its flagship diversity program in March. Officials did not say what funds received by the university violated disclosure statutes, or which countries the funding had come from. Paul Moore, chief investigative counsel at the Department of Education, said in a news release that the university had erroneously identified some foreign funding as originating from 'nongovernmental entities," even though the foreign funders seemed to be 'directly affiliated with foreign governments.' The department also submitted an expansive list of records requests as part of the investigation, asking the university to provide personnel files on university students and employees, records on research projects, tax records and records on other partnerships with foreign universities, governments and other entities. In the news release, Mr. Moore also sought to tie the investigation into the University of Michigan's funding to two smuggling case involving Chinese researchers working at laboratories at the university. The Department of Justice charged the three students in June, two with smuggling an agricultural fungus and one with smuggling 'biological material related to roundworms.'
CNN
15-07-2025
- Politics
- CNN
University of Michigan faces federal investigation after arrest of 2 Chinese scientists
Washington (AP) — The University of Michigan is under federal scrutiny after two Chinese scientists linked to the school were separately charged with smuggling biological materials into the United States. The Education Department on Tuesday opened an investigation into the university's foreign funding, citing the pair of cases that were announced days apart in June. It said the 'highly disturbing criminal charges' raise concerns about Michigan's vulnerability to national security threats from China. 'Despite the University of Michigan's history of downplaying its vulnerabilities to malign foreign influence, recent reports reveal that UM's research laboratories remain vulnerable to sabotage,' said Paul Moore, chief investigative counsel of the department. President Donald Trump has made it a priority to increase transparency around foreign gifts and contracts to U.S. universities, especially those tied to China. Similar investigations have been opened at Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California, Berkeley. It joins efforts from Republicans in Congress who have urged universities to cut research ties with China, saying China exploits the relationships to steal technology. Michigan ended a partnership with a university in Shanghai in January amid pressure from House Republicans who called it a security risk. The new investigation demands financial records from Michigan, along with information about research collaborations with institutions outside the U.S. The Education Department accuses Michigan of being 'incomplete, inaccurate and untimely' in its public disclosures around funding from foreign sources. Federal authorities brought charges in June against a Chinese scientist and his girlfriend — who worked at a lab at the University of Michigan — after the FBI said it halted their effort to bring a toxic fungus into the United States. Days later, authorities arrested a Chinese scientist who was arriving in the U.S. and has been accused of shipping biological material to a laboratory at the University of Michigan. In June, the university said it condemned any actions that undermine national security and announced a review of protocols related to research security. In a letter to the university, however, the Education Department said some school officials have downplayed the vulnerability of research collaborations with Chinese institutions. It singles out Ann Chih Lin, director of the university's Center for Chinese Studies, who has publicly said the threat of technology theft from China is overstated. 'Lin's apparent indifference to the national security concerns of the largest single source of funding for UM's annual research expenditures — the American taxpayer — is particularly unsettling,' Education Department officials wrote. Federal law requires universities to report all gifts and contracts from foreign sources totaling $250,000 or more. The law went mostly unenforced until Trump's first term, when the Education Department opened a dozen inquiries into universities accused of underreporting foreign money. The Biden administration closed most of those cases, but the effort has recently been renewed. Many U.S. universities acknowledge a need to improve research security but caution against treating Chinese scholars with hostility and suspicion, saying only small numbers have been involved in espionage. Last year, House Republicans issued a report finding that hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding had gone toward research that ultimately boosted Chinese advancements in artificial intelligence, semiconductor technology and nuclear weapons. China is the second-largest country of origin for foreign students in the U.S., behind only India. In the 2023-24 academic year, more than 270,000 international students were from China, making up roughly a quarter of all foreign students in the United States.
