CONCORD – Two University of New Hampshire professors were arrested Friday on allegations they used grant money marked for research for their

personal gain.

Hailong Zhang, 44, of Nottingham, and Jichun Zhang, 45, of Durham were arrested by federal agents Friday morning and brought to the United States District Court in Concord to face the charges. They allegedly stole money from federal research grants in separate instances.

According to court records, Hailong Zhang, a research project manager for the UNH College of Life Sciences and Agriculture, was authorized to use a credit card provided by UNH for expenses covered by federal research grants that were awarded to UNH, as a prime-grantee or sub-grantee, by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health.

The indictment alleges that on 31 separate occasions from approximately December 2013 to January 2018, Hailong Zhang used his business credit card to purchase gift cards from Amazon.com that totaled more than $82,000. Hailong Zhang then used those gift cards purchase items for himself.

The Indictment also alleges that Hailong Zhang concealed his unauthorized use of the credit card by submitting a fictitious receipt and a fraudulent written justification for each expense to the College of Life Sciences and Agriculture Business

Service Center.

Jichun Zhang, a research assistant professor for the UNH Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space, was also authorized to use a credit card provided by UNH for expenses covered by federal research grants that were awarded to UNH, as the prime-grantee, by the National Aeronautic and Space Administration.

The indictment alleges that on 31 different occasions from approximately January 2016 to December 2017, Jichun Zhang used his business credit card to purchase personal items totaling more than $6,900 from Amazon.com, PayPal, and Apple, Inc. Jichun Zhang concealed the unauthorized use of the credit card by submitting a fictitious receipt and a fraudulent written justification for each expense to the UNH Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space’s Business Service Center, according to the indictment.

Erika Mantz, UNH spokeswoman, said Friday that university officials detected irregularities in the accounting in December. At that point, all of the information was handed over to the United States Attorney’s Office in Concord. Both professors will be placed on unpaid administrative leave and banned from campus, Mantz said. Mantz was unable to answer why the two professors were not placed on leave once the thefts were detected in December.

“That’s a questions for the United States Attorney,” Mantz said.

Dena Blanco, the spokeswoman for the United States Attorney, could not answer that question, saying it is not currently part of the public record.

Damien Fisher can be reached at 594-1245 or dfisher@nashuatelegraph.com or @Telegraph_DF.