A Columbus man has been cleared of helping his wife in a high-dollar cancer hoax after passing a lie detector test.

Phylip B. Chen, 38, of Columbus, had been accused of taking part in a cancer scam along with his wife that bilked friends and family out of $792,000 over two years.

Melanie A. Chen, 30, has already pleaded guilty to falsely saying her husband had cancer and soliciting for money to pay for his non-existent medical bills. She was sentenced to eight years in prison last month.

Phylip Chen had denied any knowledge or involvement in the scam.

Prosecutors had agreed to drop theft, receiving stolen property and filing false tax return charges if Chen passed the lie detector test. He took and passed the test last week, so prosecutors filed to drop the case on Friday afternoon. Late Friday afternoon, the filing was awaiting Common Pleas Judge W. Duncan Whitney’s signature.

Since he was charged, Chen has been on unpaid leave from his job as a medical researcher. He has been free on his own recognisance, caring for the couple’s six children.

No one answered the phone at Chen’s residence on Friday, but defense attorney Keith Boger said dropping the charges was the only fair outcome. Boger said Chen may ask a judge to seal records pertaining to the charges.

“There was no evidence that he was involved in this,” Boger said. “The only basis of the indictment, I believe, is that he should have known (about the scam), or that he must have known.”

But no one would have testified that Chen was involved, he said. Boger had not spoken to Chen since prosecutors had dropped the charges, but said his client was expecting to be cleared and was just waiting for the prosecutor’s office to file the corresponding paperwork.

Assistant prosecutor Bill Owen said as prosecutors moved forward with the investigation, “we consistently talked to individuals associated with the case who could not definitely say that Chen had knowledge of these thefts.”

So, it was only right to give Chen a chance to pass a polygraph test, he said.

“The (criminal justice) process is a truth-telling process, and that’s what we seek in these proceedings,” Owen said.