Chapter 406: Chapter 213: Stained Scholar (7.8K)_2

"Elder Lin, the academician you mentioned, may I know their name?"

Lin Zhenhua looked up at him, sighed softly, and said in a deep voice:

"His name is Zhou Shan."

"Zhou... What?!"

Upon hearing this name, Xu Yun was momentarily stunned.

A few seconds passed.

He then nodded knowingly.

So that’s how it is.

Why would an ’academician’ be left vacant, recommended to stand before him?

Why couldn’t Lin Zhenhua arrange for him to work at the Hanhua Group, this state enterprise?

Now it all makes sense.

Because that person is Zhou Shan...

Zhou Shan.

One of the youngest academicians in the history of the Huaxia Engineering Academy, currently 62 years old, who primarily focuses on animal molecular genetics and breeding research.

Besides being an academician of the Huaxia Engineering Academy, Zhou Shan was also an academician of the International Eurasian Academy of Sciences, a foreign academician of the German Academy of Sciences, and a foreign academician of the Gaul Academy of Sciences, boasting incredibly impressive credentials.

However, twelve years ago on a certain day,

Zhou Shan was taken away for investigation by relevant departments before an academic conference began.

Six months later,

Zhou Shan was prosecuted for misappropriating funds to his own controlled company and was ultimately sentenced to twelve years in prison for embezzling a total of over 30 million Renminbi in research project funds.

According to the timeline now...

Zhou Shan has indeed reached the time of his release.

Seeing this.

Perhaps someone might ask:

On the surface, isn’t this just a simple embezzlement case?

Why should such a tainted scholar be able to join Xu Yun’s company upon release?

And why would someone like Lin Zhenhua recommend him?

Could it be that for the sake of so-called research capability, even the label of a tainted scholar is disregarded?

The reason is simple.

The many details behind the Zhou Shan incident are far from being as straightforward as they appear.

For example, a very crucial point.

Based on Zhou Shan himself and the evidence collected at the time, it is true that Zhou Shan diverted the funds to his company account.

But he did not use it for leisure or to purchase real estate or cars, and there was not a single piece of evidence for personal consumer spending.

Just the opposite.

All the money that he diverted to the company account eventually became research and development funds for the project group.

Yes.

You read that right.

Zhou Shan diverted research and development funds, but the ultimate purpose was to use them for research and development.

Because at that time, the funding process was like this:

For instance, if a project proposal was approved, with a planned cycle of one year, a million yuan of funding was allocated from above.

Theoretically, this money should be immediately credited, right?

Wrong!

The time to actually receive this money often took a very long time—quickly, six months, slowly, nine to ten months.

Meanwhile, the requirement from above was to spend all this money within the remaining months, with any unused research funds needing to be returned.

This practice led to two situations.

First, many project groups rushed to spend money and madly cleared accounts at the end of the year.

Second, it objectively forced many project groups with expenditures that must span across the years (for example, your experimental animals must be raised into the next year) to find various ways to retain the funds.

As for where the funding went in those early months...

Xu Yun didn’t know and didn’t dare to speculate recklessly, but the common fact back then was that receiving funding was invariably delayed.

And as for Zhou Shan’s project, it happened to fall into the second category, so what could be done?

In the end, after much deliberation, Zhou Shan could only choose the approach of diverting the funds first and then gradually using them.

This was also the common practice of most projects at the time, which was highly irregular. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

So ever since Zhou Shan was arrested,

In 2014, the GWY issued Document No. 11, allowing funds to be transferred to the next year.

In 2016, further guidance was issued, stating that post-acceptance project groups could retain unspent funds for two years.

With no change in the total budget.

Each expenditure of the project group could be used more flexibly, with no longer any restrictions on labor expenditure ratios.

Therefore, Zhou Shan’s imprisonment was, in fact, a very controversial case.

On one hand, he did not engage in extravagant spending in a personal capacity, and all the evidence at the time indicated as much.

After he was arrested, dozens of academicians from the two academies jointly expressed their hope for lenient treatment.

In fact.

In 2018, prominent legal scholars Gao Mingxuan, Chen Guangzhong, Zhang Mingkai, Chen Ruihua, Zhou Guangquan, Chu Huai-zhi, and Zhang Yuanhuang also conducted an analysis, and the final conclusion was:

"The involved research funds, after being transferred out, were mostly channeled into the industrialization platform supporting the project, used for technological development, animal breeding, etc., and were not illegally appropriated by Zhou Shan and others, thus their actions do not meet the objective elements of the crime of embezzlement."

"The source of forensic accounting materials in this case is unclear, and there are many flaws such as the lack of sign-offs by appraisers, lacking necessary norms, scientific validity, and rigor, and thus should not serve as the basis for a verdict."

"Zhou Shan was not aware of the specific management matters related to the funds, had no criminal intent, and thus does not meet the subjective elements of the crime of embezzlement."

But why did Zhou Shan end up in prison?

This relates to the chaos in Huaxia’s scientific research circle at that time.

To be frank.

From the emergence of the Qigong craze in the 1990s.

A flood of charlatans emerged within the research field.

At that time, Huaxia’s research scene was indeed very chaotic, chaotic to an extremely distorted degree.

We need not look far, just take Xu Yun’s alma mater, Ke Da, for instance.

The shame of Ke Da, Zhu Xishi, orchestrated numerous scandalous projects back then, like the previously mentioned project researching superpowers by placing jellyfish on one’s head, with a funding of 2 million yuan.

You should know.

That was 2 million yuan back in 2003.

There were also projects researching Tarzan-like behaviors.