(Bloomberg) -- U.S. prosecutors dropped an indictment against an MIT professor charged a year ago with receiving federal grant money but failing to disclose his ties to China.

The reversal in the case of Gang Chen, a nanotechnology expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, comes as the Justice Department is reviewing its policy of investigating and prosecuting cases of economic espionage intended to benefit China. 

“Today’s dismissal of the criminal charges against Gang Chen is a result of our continued investigation into this matter,” prosecutors said in a statement. “Through that effort, we recently obtained additional information pertaining to the materiality of Professor Chen’s alleged omissions in the context of the grant review process at issue in this case. After a careful assessment of this new information in the context of all the evidence, our office has concluded that we can no longer meet our burden of proof at trial.”

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.