SANTA ANA – A former UC Irvine professor has pleaded guilty to accepting secret payments from a Japanese company that was funding his research on next-generation computing and networking.
Tatsuya Suda, 60, pleaded guilty Wednesday to one felony count of conflict of interest in contracts, sales and purchases.
Suda was originally charged with six felonies in November 2012. He was alleged to have failed to disclose at least $431,250 in payments from the Tokyo-based KDDI Corp. between 2006 and 2009 while working full-time as a computer science professor at UCI.
Public-university researchers are legally required to disclose personal financial stakes in research that’s funded by private industry, which prosecutors said Suda failed to do.
Because Suda pleaded guilty to the one felony count, the other charges were dropped. He originally faced a maximum sentence of eight years and four months in prison, but was ultimately sentenced to 262 days in jail, three years’ probation and restitution, according to court records.
Staff writers Scott Martindale and Vik Jolly contributed to this report.
Contact the writer: 714-704-3764 or aduranty@ocregister.com
