A retired Auburn University engineering professor is facing federal charges for allegedly failing to report income from Chinese companies and money he held in Chinese bank accounts on his taxes, according to an indictment.

Fa “Foster” Dai, an electrical and computer engineering professor at Auburn whom the university said retired in October, was also allegedly a corporate executive officer of Shenzhen NRT, Co., Ltd., a company based in China, according to the indictment filed against Dai in federal court in Montgomery in September and unsealed on Monday.

Dai, a 60-year-old former Auburn resident, allegedly used accounts with China Merchants Bank and Industrial & Commercial Bank of China to receive payments from at least five Chinese entities and failed to report that income on his federal tax returns for 2018 through 2020.

He is charged with three counts of making and subscribing a false tax return and two counts of willful failure to file report of foreign bank and financial accounts.

Besides failing to report foreign income for tax purposes, the indictment noted U.S. citizens and residents who have a financial interest in, or signature or other authority over, a bank account in a foreign country with a combined value of more than $10,000 at any time during a particular calendar year, are required to file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) with the United States Treasury.

The indictment alleges that Dai failed to file the required FBAR reports for the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China account in 2018 and the China Merchants Bank account in 2020.

Auburn University sent AL.com the following statement on the indictment:

“Fa Foster Dai retired from Auburn University on Oct. 1, 2024. Auburn fully cooperated with law enforcement and the U.S. Attorney’s office during their investigation.”

If convicted, Dai faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and an up to $250,000 fine. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering federal sentencing guidelines and other factors.