By: (AP) A journalist was charged with impersonating federal officials to get documents in a case against two Japanese scientists accused of stealing research material.
Avi Lidgi, 27, of the Tokyo-based
Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, falsely identified himself three times on May 17 to get a list of the government's exhibits faxed to him, the U.S. Attorney's office said. Lidgi got the secret list from prosecutors and defense attorneys.
A Cleveland grand jury indicted Lidgi, of Santa Monica, Calif., on Wednesday on charges of pretending to be a federal prosecutor and an assistant to a federal judge.
If convicted, Lidgi faces up to three years in prison and fines of up to $250,000. Lidgi told
The Plain Dealer on Wednesday that he was unaware of the indictments and that his newspaper fired him. His phone was not in service Thursday.
Lidgi was a staff member of the Los Angeles bureau of the newspaper, which has more than 10 million subscribers. The newspaper issued a statement saying it prohibits employees from falsely identifying themselves and that the reporter acted on his own.
In the espionage case, Hiroaki Serizawa, a researcher at the University of Kansas Medical Center, and former Cleveland Clinic scientist Takashi Okamoto are accused of stealing biological materials used for research on Alzheimer's disease from the Cleveland Clinic.
Serizawa and Okamoto have both pleaded innocent, and their trial is scheduled to begin in May. It would be the first prosecution under a 1996 law intended to prevent the theft of trade secrets by foreign governments.
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