A Chinese government official and his allies allegedly tried to convince at least seven U.S. universities to sponsor visas for purported Chinese research scholars who in reality aimed to recruit American science talent, according to a recently unsealed criminal complaint filed by the Justice Department. They succeeded at least once, the complaint says.

The Wall Street Journal has identified two of the targeted institutions as the University of Georgia and the University of Massachusetts Boston.

The defendant, Zhongsan Liu, was released on bail last week; he hasn’t entered a formal response to the charge that he engaged in a conspiracy to commit visa fraud. A lawyer for Mr. Liu, assistant federal defender Martin Cohen, declined to comment.

The Chinese embassy didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Representatives of the universities said they were cooperating in the probe.