Morgan State professor indicted on fraud charges

A federal grand jury in Baltimore has indicted a Morgan State University professor in connection with an alleged scheme to defraud the National Science Foundation of $700,000.

Manoj Kumar Jha, 45, of Severn, applied for and received $200,000 in grants from the foundation to fund a proposed highway project, money he used to pay his mortgage, credit card debt and other personal expenses, according to a news release Wednesday from U.S. Attorney for Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein. Rosenstein said Jha also applied to the NSF for an additional $500,000 in grants.

According to information on the university’s website, Jha is an assistant professor of civil engineering and co-author of a book on intelligent road design. Jha also worked at the Maryland State Highway Administration for more than seven years and is the founding director of the university’s Center for Advanced Transportation and Infrastructure Engineering Research, according to the website.

No court appearance had been scheduled for Jha as of Wednesday evening.

Calls to Jha’s office at Morgan State were not returned Wednesday evening. Rosenstein was in a meeting and unavailable for comment before press time.

If convicted, Jha faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for each of five counts of wire fraud and for one count each of mail fraud and falsification of records.

According to Rosenstein’s office, the scheme took place from January 2008 to July 2009 as Jha, a full-time professor, applied for grant funds from the NSF’s Small Business Technology Transfer program on behalf of his business, Amar Transportation Research and Consulting Inc.

Jha proposed to improve and ultimately sell models used by highway planners to “optimize horizontal and vertical highways.”

In his application, Jha falsely listed the University of Maryland as the project’s collaborating research institution, the indictment alleged. Jha also falsely stated in his proposal that the company had eight employees, he would take leave time from Morgan State to work on the project, and that he had received $100,000 in funding from a third party, the indictment alleged.

In addition to using the grant to make mortgage and credit card payments, Jha also wrote an $11,000 salary check to his wife, who did not work for the company, and a $6,000 check to himself, according to the indictment.

Jha then falsified timesheets for a nonexistent research scientist working on the project and an expenditure ledger listing fake research expenses, the indictment said. Jha provided the falsified documents only after a request for materials from the Office of Inspector General for the NSF.

The indictment is part of an increased effort to investigate financial crimes by the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, which was created by President Barack Obama in 2009, Rosenstein’s office said.