WASHINGTON--For entomologist James Erickson, the former director of the U.S. Agency for International Development's troubled malarial vaccine program (The Scientist, July 10, 1989, page 1, and Dec. 11, 1989, page 1), 1989 was not a good year. And this week he'll find out whether things are going to get any better in 1990.
Erickson goes before U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., to defend himself against charges that he defrauded the government program of more than $140,000. He was indicted last fall on 14 criminal counts after an investigation by the agency's inspector general's office. With him in the dock will be Wasim Siddiqui, a microbiologist from the University of Hawaii charged separately with defrauding the agency of $134,000 in connection with a series of grants he received (The Scientist, Oct. 16, 1989, page 8).
Both men are expected to argue that they are being punished for complaining to Congress ...
