David Latchman, a leading geneticist and one of the highest-paid university leaders in the UK, was last year found responsible for failing to properly supervise a lab in which widespread scientific fraud occurred over many years.

Two investigation reports found data falsification in a total of nine scientific papers published by members of a lab Latchman ran at University College London, according to documents released to BuzzFeed News under a Freedom of Information request.

Latchman did not have direct involvement in the manipulation and reuse of images to falsify scientific results, investigators found.

But both reports faulted Latchman for his “failure to manage the laboratory appropriately.” This, together with his involvement as an author on the papers, amounted to “recklessness ... which facilitated the misconduct in research.” Both reports decided that his behavior qualified as misconduct.

The documents also show that an earlier panel of UCL investigators in 2015 found “prima facie evidence of research misconduct” in another eight scientific papers.

“In light of the seriousness of the matter,” that report concluded, “the Panel considered that the matter should be referred directly to UCL’s relevant disciplinary process or other internal process and bypass the Formal Investigation stage.”

Yet in neither 2015 nor 2018 did Latchman face any punishment. “Two separate disciplinary processes into Professor Latchman found that there was no deliberate intention to commit misconduct in research and, therefore, there were insufficient grounds for dismissal,” UCL said in a statement released with the documents Monday.

Another scientist involved had already left UCL, the university said, so UCL wasn’t able to take disciplinary action against them either.

The fact that UCL took five years to investigate the allegations, and then issued no disciplinary sanctions against anyone despite widespread evidence of scientific fraud, will add to lawmakers’ concerns that Britain’s universities are failing to adequately police research misconduct.

UCL declined to comment on why it did not take any disciplinary action against Latchman. “We will not be adding anything further,” UCL spokesperson Kirsty Walker told BuzzFeed News by email.

Shimon Cohen, a reputation management specialist working for Latchman, told BuzzFeed News by email that Latchman rejected the assertions made in the investigation reports.

“The nature of the manipulation identified in the UCL investigation was such that any fraud would only be apparent to a reviewer who was actively looking for such deception,” Cohen wrote. “To subject all research to this disproportionate scrutiny is not reasonable, to then make the assertion that to overlook such deception is ‘inattentive’ or ‘reckless’ is unjust.”