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UPDATE: U.S. Dropping Case Against Local Professor

UPDATE (Sept. 14, 2015) -- PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Federal prosecutors sought to dismiss charges Friday against a Temple University physics professor who was accused of scheming to provide secret U.S. technology to China after being confronted with statements from physicists that investigators had misunderstood the technology. Story here.

Original story below.

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PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A local professor is facing charges, according to federal prosecutors.

Temple University Physics Department Chair Xiaoxing Xi is charged with four counts of wire fraud in an alleged scheme to share sensitive U.S. technology with China.

Only CBS 3 was there as federal investigators were at the 47-year-old's home in Penn Valley.

He is a naturalized U.S. citizen born in China.

The indictment contends the professor is a world-renowned expert who, beginning in 2006, allegedly sought lucrative and prestigious appointments in China in exchange for sharing information on a device created by a U.S. company he worked with while on sabbatical that revolutionized the field of superconductivity and that, "The indictment further alleges that Xi repeatedly reproduced, sold, transferred, distributed, and otherwise shared the device with, and exploited it for the benefit of, government entities and other third parties in China."

No one answered the door at his home after investigators left.

A spokesperson for Temple University had no comment, but according to his university online bio, Xi began working there in 2009 and was a professor at Penn State University before that.

Xi was released on $100,000 bond.

He faces a maximum of 80 years in prison.

The FBI is handling the investigation.

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