Court denies appeal of HIV fraudster’s 57-month prison sentence

court caseAn appeals court has affirmed the stiff prison sentence for Dong-Pyou Han, the former Iowa State University researcher who faked the results of an HIV vaccine experiment in rabbits.

In July 2015, Han was sentenced to 57 months in prison, and ordered to repay more than $7 million to the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

The initial verdict came a year and a half after the U.S. Office of Research Integrity determined Han had spiked experimental results to make a vaccine against HIV look more effective — thanks, in part, to Han’s confession.

His attorney filed an appeal on July 15, and a brief in support of the appeal on September 1.

In a decision filed earlier this week, however, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed the 57-month sentence, saying that the sentence followed guidelines and “was not substantively unreasonable.”

Han’s attorney has withdrawn the appeal.

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2 thoughts on “Court denies appeal of HIV fraudster’s 57-month prison sentence”

  1. I study through a lot of technical journals:engineering, scientific etc. For last 30 years or so, I have noticed consistent pattern: texts are unintelligible, confusing, data dubious, results cannot be reproduced, conclusions elementary school level a lot of times. Who is watching them?

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