Chinese American scientist awarded historic settlement for false espionage charges and wrongful termination

Photo: Maddie McGarvey / The New York Times via Redux

The U.S. government has reached a historic settlement with Chinese American scientist Sherry Chen, an award-winning hydrologist who was employed by the National Weather Service. In 2012, the Commerce Department’s security unit, the Investigations and Threat Management Service (ITMS), began unlawfully investigating Chen and many other Asian American scientists. ITMS investigated Chen on charges of espionage and providing false statements which ultimately led to her arrest and firing in 2014. Justice Department officials dropped all charges weeks later. In 2018, Chen’s firing was found to be unlawful and she was placed on indefinite leave.

Now, Chen has just been awarded one of the largest settlements paid to an individual in Commerce Department history. Chen will receive $550,000 from the Commerce Department and an annuity from the U.S. government valued at $1.25 million over the next 10 years.

“The government’s investigation and prosecution of me was discriminatory and unjustified,” said Chen. “The Commerce Department is finally being held responsible for its wrongdoing and for the conduct of its illegal security unit, which has had a devastating impact on my life and the lives of so many other federal employees. No one else should have to endure this injustice.”

“My lifetime of outstanding scientific work was destroyed. And my entire life was shattered. I was arrested in front of my co-workers, led out of a building in handcuffs, and held in solitary confinement at a courthouse jail” Chen said to NBC Asian America earlier this year. “It is still unbelievable that no matter how hard we work, how great the contributions or even sacrifices we make to this country, we have often been viewed as foreigners or not American enough.” 

ITMS was disbanded after investigations concluded the unit to be a rogue and unaccountable police force with poor management and weak oversight. “Investigations launched by the unit often lacked a sufficient basis. Although many investigations targeted legitimate threats, the ITMS appears to have opened cases on a variety of employees for the purpose of exaggerating the unit’s ability to uncover security risks within the civil service,” a Senate report said. “The ITMS also broadly targeted departmental divisions with comparably high proportions of Asian-American employees, ostensibly to counter attempts of espionage by individuals with Chinese ancestry.”