By Associated Press - Tuesday, May 2, 2017

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) - A medical researcher in South Carolina has been sentenced to prison for misusing millions of federal grant funds.

The Post and Courier of Charleston reported (https://bit.ly/2qtNJGw) that former Mount Pleasant resident Dr. Jian-Yun Dong was sentenced to nearly six years in prison Monday.

Dong founded GenPhar Inc. and Vaxima Inc., and was accused of misusing more than $3 million in grants that was supposed to go for vaccine research.

U.S. District Judge David Norton found Dong guilty in 2015 on dozens of federal charges related to fraud, theft and lying to investigators.

Prosecutors say he used the money to help build an office building and visit his mistress in China.

Dong had contended his spending bolstered his work for the military to come up with vaccines for the Ebola virus.

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Information from: The Post and Courier, https://www.postandcourier.com

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