Dutch Psychology Fraudster Avoids Trial

Disgraced Dutch social psychologist Diederik Stapel, who in 2011 was found to have fabricated data in at least 30 published papers, will not face trial for misuse of public research funds. Instead, in a pre-trial settlement, Stapel has agreed to 120 hours of community service, according to a statement (in Dutch) from the Dutch public prosecutor’s office.

In the settlement, Stapel also agreed not to make a claim on 18 months of half-pay salary that he might have been entitled to contest under Dutch law, as he had said he was sick when he was suspended and fired in September 2011 by Tilburg University. 

But the public prosecutor said today that there was no abuse of the grants. The funds went mainly to salaries of staff (PhD students), who did the work they were paid for — even though that work was partly based on fabricated data. “He didn’t use the money for personal enrichment — for example, to buy a car or a house”... 

Stapel had already suffered severe consequences for his actions, which had been taken into account in the settlement, the spokesperson added; he had returned his PhD, and cooperated with the criminal investigation, and with the three-university committee that investigated his academic fraud. 

“The case is now closed,” the spokesperson says. A Dutch newspaper, NU.nl, adds that Stapel’s PhD students did not want to see the story raked over again in court.

Read more (via Nature) here.