Perhaps an unintended benefit of enhanced security. --- CU denies tipping off authorities Discovery by routine search, officials say By ESTHER CAMPI Journal Staff ITHACA -- A top Cornell University official said Tuesday that Cornell did not offer law-enforcement officials any advance tips that could have led to the arrest of a former Cornell scientist on Sunday, despite documented suspicions about him. "The answer to that is a simple no," said Henrik Dullea, Cornell's vice president for university relations. Qingqiang Yin, 38, was charged Monday with two felonies, including conspiracy to defraud the United States by transporting stolen property. He came under suspicion Sunday after security officials at Syracuse Hancock International Airport found biological materials in more than 100 vials and petri dishes in his and his family's luggage. He was reportedly attempting to return to China with his wife and daughter. Yin was employed as a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Animal Science in Cornell's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences from July 15, 2001 to July 14, 2002. Part of his research was government funded. Authorities have said the discovery was the result of a random search. "Both adults had expired passports and visas and the airline computer selected them for a pre-boarding search of their checked luggage," FBI Special Agent Margarita Alvarez-Fitzgerald said in an affidavit. That affidavit revealed that Cornell had suspicions about Yin long before his arrest Sunday, however, and that the university reportedly decided not to renew his contract because of poor job performance. James McClung, a graduate student in the animal science department at Cornell, reportedly told FBI agents that in June, he found a copy of a letter on a public computer in the laboratory where he worked with Yin. The letter suggested Yin was looking for a research job in China and was offering to bring to China yeasts, bacteria and fungi relating to commercial production of an enzyme that would reduce phosphorus excretion in animal waste. The excretion pollutes the environment. Technology to limit the problem is thought to be commercially valuable. Cornell has two patents pending and researchers are in the process of initiating contract talks with industry for the manufacture of a final enzyme product. Yin's letter also indicated that he had access to "transformed E. coli. " But Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Baxter told the Syracuse Newspapers that the strain of E. coli was not virulent. After learning of the letter, Xingen Lei, an animal science professor who ran the laboratory where Yin worked, warned Yin in a July 5 memo that taking research materials, "including DNA constructs, plasmas, hosts, proteins, primers, expression vectors, etc.," from the lab without permission could result in federal charges. Lei has told investigators that the various materials recovered from Yin have a monetary value far in excess of $5,000. Baxter told the Syracuse Newspapers the substances were worth "anywhere from a puddle of slime to millions of dollars." In his letter, Lei warned Yin that, "As you have contributed virtually nothing to any research project in the laboratory, you are not allowed to claim any research credit of our research findings or achievements in oral or written form." Lei also pointed out that the research was partially funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. "Therefore, all these projects have been conducted by the protection of the U.S. government," Lei wrote. "Any wrongdoing will result in federal charges." Yin's signature appears in court copies of the memo. The fact that Cornell warned Yin about stealing research materials just weeks before he was charged with that crime has prompted questions about whether Cornell officials tipped off law-enforcement officials to keep a close watch on Yin. Dullea flatly denied that possibility in an interview Tuesday. "I think the people at the department level felt that they had done what was necessary when they made it crystal clear to him in the July 5th memo which he signed that taking any material from the lab without specific permission was forbidden," he added. The vials had been taken to the state Department of Health's Wadsworth Center Laboratory for testing. Dr. Lloyd Novick, Onondaga County's health commissioner, said Tuesday that the FBI called off the analysis, however. "The FBI has determined that this is not really a situation with the risk of bioterrorism and they have requested Wadsworth not to go ahead with the laboratory analysis," he said. "They intend to collect the specimen themselves to use in a criminal investigation." Yin has reportedly told federal investigators that one or more of the vials contained bacteria. Kristine Smith, a spokeswoman for the New York State Department of Health, confirmed Tuesday that the substances were turned over to the FBI without being tested. The FBI plans to have its own analysis conducted by an Army laboratory, according to Phil Looney, the FBI's supervisory senior resident agent in Syracuse. Also Tuesday, Yin's wife, Qiuhong Zheng, 36, pleaded innocent to charges that she endangered the welfare of her 4-year-old daughter. Syracuse police charged her after authorities reportedly found vials of biological materials in Zheng's luggage, as well as her daughter's. Some of them were leaking, and the family had to undergo special decontamination showers, authorities said. Bail was set at $5,000 on the endangerment charge. However, Zheng was being held on an immigration detainer. The defendants were both being held at the Onondaga County Justice Center's jail. Yin faces a pretrial detention hearing Friday morning. The family was evaluated at the University Hospital of SUNY Upstate Medical Center on Sunday, but were found to have no symptoms of illness, said hospital spokeswoman Doretta Royer. On Tuesday afternoon, Royer said the couple's daughter was still in hospital custody because her parents are in jail. The Associated Press contributed to this story.