OAKLAND — A former research scientist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was sentenced to 18 months in prison Tuesday for turning in false data and reports to the federal government to receive funding over a four-year time period.
S. Darin Kinion, Ph.D., 44, of Lafayette, plead guilty in June to submitting false data and reports to the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (or IARPA) of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to defraud the government out of funds intended to pay for research, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Kinion reportedly admitted that he received millions of dollars from IARPA between 2008 and 2012 “to design, build, and test experimental components in the field of quantum computing at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory,” federal officials said.
Instead of building and testing the experimental components, authorities say Kinion presented false and fraudulent data and information to the government in an attempt to defraud the IARPA into believing he did the work. Kinion would have had to set up and operate certain equipment to build and test the experimental components, but he never setup nor operated the equipment.
The former research scientist requested funds from the IARPA to buy equipment and claimed he used it to build and test experimental components. He also turned in false reports and fraudulent information that support his claims, justifying continued funding to support his research.
Authorities said Kinion took “deliberate additional steps to conceal and to prevent IARPA from discovering his fraudulent scheme.” He mailed functioning components to IARPA’s validation team, although he knew he mailed phony non-functioning components.
Kinion also altered and backdated Federal Express mailing labels and claimed he mailed items at an earlier date than he actually mailed them. He also conducted a three-day “charade” experiment to convince another scientist that his test was legitimate.
Federal officials did not say what became of the funds Kinion fraudulently received from the government.
Kinion will begin serving his 18-month sentence on Jan. 26. He will also serve three years of supervised release after his sentence and will have to pay $3,317,893 in restitution to the United States.
A spokesperson with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory could not be immediately reached for comment.
