Pierre Barnoti, who founded U.S.-based SPCA International in 2006, also has a questionable record as a charity manager.

CNN: Little of charity's money going to help animals

"Diverting resources away from following up current leads to track down people based on convictions that may be decades old is a questionable strategy at a time when the police are already overstretched, " he added.

BBC: A DNA autoradiogram

But is a questionable hypothesis sufficient cause for a federal investigation of a federal scientist?

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