A cybersecurity expert used by CBS News to verify Hunter Biden’s laptop is under investigation over allegations he lied about his credentials.

Mark Lanterman, a chief technology officer for the Minnesota-based company Computer Forensics Services (CFS), was one of two cyber investigators CBS News used to authenticate Hunter Biden’s laptop in November 2022.

Since then, Lanterman has been accused of including false information on his resume, including his educational attainment.

The allegations are serious enough that the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office (HCAO) in Minnesota said Lanterman is being investigated by the FBI, according to a press release. The HCAO also says they will no longer use Lanterman as an expert witness in pending cases, per a letter obtained by Fox 9.

“In compliance with our constitutional and ethical obligations, today, we sent an additional disclosure on the ten cases that are potentially impacted,” HCAO said. “This disclosure states the FBI is now investigating the allegations against Mr. Lanterman.”

The press release noted HCAO was “unable to fully verify Mr. Lanterman’s educational and employment background.” (RELATED: Tulsi Gabbard Strips Security Clearances Of 51 Officials Who Signed Hunter Biden Laptop Letter)

A spokesperson for the Minneapolis FBI told the Daily Caller, “Per policy, the FBI does not confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation.”

Lanterman disputed the allegations in a video statement.

“My work and background have been scrutinized countless times in an adversarial setting,” Lanterman said. “It is the nature of the work that I and the company do. I stand by the truth of my background and credentials.”

Lanterman’s resume, however, contains a number of unverified claims, according to a Daily Caller investigation.

A web archive from CFS’s site on March 19, 2025 lists Lanterman as chief technology officer for CFS. However, his bio no longer appears on the page as of publication.

Lanterman’s son, who also works at CFS, reportedly told Fox 9 that Lanterman’s bio was removed so the recent news did not distract from the company’s work.

The Expert Institute, which provides attorneys access to expert witnesses, also appears to have removed Lanterman’s profile from its website. It now directs to a 404 error page.

On LinkedIn, Lanterman claims he studied computer science at Upsala College in New Jersey and cybersecurity at Harvard University.

In a 2022 deposition, Lanterman stated he completed a B.S. in computer science in 1987 and obtained a M.S. in computer science in 1989. He further claimed he “completed a nine-month program at Harvard University in cyber security” in 2012. Lanterman confessed it was a non-degree program.

Ethics attorney Sean Harrington asserts that Lanterman’s postgraduate education “at Harvard” was actually an 8-week online course administered through GetSmarter, according to his report.

An email sent to Harrington from a GetSmarter address confirmed Lanterman attended the “Harvard VPAL Cybersecurity online short course 2018-04-25.”

“The courses do not carry any credits towards a university degree or diploma qualification,” GetSmarter’s website states.

Lanterman sent a photograph to HCAO in March of his certificate from Harvard/Harvard X, according to the office’s press release. Harrington provided the Caller with a photograph of a Harvard certificate seemingly belonging to Lanterman.

The certificate says that the course ran from April 2018 to July 2018. Harvard’s website for the Cybersecurity: Managing Risk in the Information Age course notes that the program is nine weeks and runs from April 30 to July 1.

Upsala College is no longer operational, and its records were transferred to Felician University, making Lanterman’s claim to have attended the college more difficult to verify.

In a letter to a Federal Magistrate judge, Lanterman said Upsala College could not locate his records due to “unresolved money-related issues.”

“In 2023, I confirmed with Felician University – which maintains Upsala College’s records — that they could not locate my transcripts or diploma, a situation that they indicated was possible due to money-related issues.”

Lanterman told the judge he was a commuter student and did not attend graduation ceremonies or social events.

Harrington similarly asserted that Felician University’s registrar failed to locate any official transcripts for Lanterman in response to a 2023 degree verification inquiry obtained by the Daily Caller. The response from Felician University did not make any mention of “money-related issues.”

“With regard to your request for an ‘official transcript,’ I must report to you at this time after numerous attempts to locate your official transcripts, we have been unsuccessful,” a clerk for Upsala College records wrote to Harrington.

Yet, Lanterman contends he did not fabricate his credentials.

“I have no reason, motive, or incentive to fabricate academic credentials — much less from a small, defunct, and bankrupt institution,” Lanterman wrote in his letter to the judge.

While he previously claimed he acquired a Master’s degree, Lanterman denied possessing an advanced degree in a 2017 deposition.

Lanterman alleges that questions about his resume from Harrington are suspect because Harrington founded Adamant Digital Forensics, which is a competitor to CFS. He also claimed Harrington has “been hired as an expert against CFS” in the past.

“Mr. Lanterman’s claim that I’m a digital forensics competitor is nothing more than a  bungling attempt to distract from very serious allegations of perjury and extortionate schemes,” Harrington, who was admitted to the bars of Wisconsin and California, told the Caller.

“He’s claimed he’s testified in over 2,000 cases (which works out to be about 2.5 times per week), and yet he concedes that we crossed paths in only one or two cases over the last ten years? I compete with Lanterman about as much as a head-and-neck surgeon competes with a podiatrist.  Both are doctors, but they treat completely different patients. Lanterman has testified that his company doesn’t take criminal defense cases, and that he does about 20% prosecution and 80% Federal civil cases, like trade secrets matters. I, on the other hand, do almost exclusively criminal defense work in mostly state cases,” Harrington said.

“Accordingly, if Lanterman goes out of business tomorrow — which it appears he will — my business will benefit not in the slightest,” Harrington asserted. “Rather, the beneficiary will be the entire legal community and the rule of law.”

The Caller was not able to independently verify Lanterman’s attendance at Upsala or HarvardX.

Lanterman’s work history has also drawn suspicion.

An archived version of Lanterman’s CFS bio said he served on the U.S. Secret Service Electronic Crimes Task Force and has testified in over 2000 cases. (RELATED: Cori Bush’s Husband Charged In Alleged COVID Fraud Scheme)

However, there are conflicting reports about his time spent on the Task Force.

A 2019 biography said he was a current member. Yet in a 2022 deposition, Lanterman claimed he was with the Secret Service for “four or five years,” with his service ending in 2003.

In another instance, Lanterman testified that he worked on the Task Force for about eight years, from 1995 to 2003.

Mark Lanterman tips: consider a DeleteMe subscription but understand limitations. Use strong passwords and two-factor authentication. Get a password manager app instead of reusing a few passwords over and over… #AJEI2022 pic.twitter.com/8MoY8FGYiX

— Appellate Judges Education Institute (@AJEI_Summit) November 13, 2022

Lanterman also said he was faculty at the Federal Judicial Center (FJC)  in Washington, D.C. for “three or four years” where he trained judges, according to a 2019 deposition.

His bio at St. Thomas University, where he is an adjunct faculty member, states he “conducts annual training for the entire federal judiciary.”

But according to FJC records, his “trainings” consisted of a workshop and a couple of webcasts.

“Our records show that Mark Lanterman presented in three Federal Judicial Center programs, an in-person workshop for judges in 2017, and two webcasts, in 2016 and 2017,” Director of the FJC John S. Cooke told the Caller in an email.

Lanterman was questioned about his past during a civil case in U.S. District Court in Florida, Fox9 reported. After the deposition, Lanterman traveled to Pennsylvania to obtain a personnel file from a police department where he previously worked, the outlet reported.

He claimed he had a serious illness and needed his files, according to court records obtained by Fox 9.

A police chief in Springfield Township said Lanterman has not given back his file, the outlet noted. Lanterman, however, claims he mailed his records back and was granted permission to leave with the file.

Lanterman has apparently testified in thousands of cases, with the outcome of those cases at risk if Lanterman is confirmed to have given false information about his credentials.

One such case is the conviction of Stephen Allwine for first-degree murder of his wife in November 2016, Fox 9 reported.

Law enforcement and prosecutors asserted Allwine attempted to hire a hitman to kill his wife by using the “Dark Net.” When that plan failed, Allwine allegedly killed her and framed the crime as a suicide.

Lanterman’s testimony played a key role in Allwine’s conviction, but Allwine argued Lanterman lied to the jury about his qualifications.

Lanterman claimed to have recovered a “deleted note” on Allwine’s laptop that contained the bitcoin address for the hitman Allwine allegedly tried to hire to kill his wife.

Allwine sought to compel Lanterman to list every case where he was an expert witness.

He believes that list will demonstrate Lanterman “lied to the jury about his qualifications and constitutes impeachment evidence against Mr. Lanterman,” according to court documents.

Testifying as an expert witness can be lucrative — Lanterman’s contracts with counties are worth thousands of dollars. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: NY Post’s ‘Smoking Gun’ Hunter Biden Email 100% Authentic, Forensic Analysis Concludes)

In one deposition, he claimed to have a three-year contract with Hennepin County budgeted for $250,000 a year.

His contract with the Washington County Attorney’s Office is billed by the hour and budgeted for $50,000, according to his deposition. Likewise, his contract with the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office is budgeted for $50,000.

CFS bills by the hour, according to Lanterman.

But those contracts may soon come to an end as lawyers and judges investigate his resume.

In March, attorneys at Zager Fuchs, P.C. requested a Federal Magistrate Judge refer Lanterman’s testimony in a case to the United States Attorney for prosecution.

“Mr. Lanterman’s [resume] seems to be riddled with false statements; he has been unable to produce a diploma from any undergraduate college or university and there is good reason to believe that Mr. Lanterman is not a college graduate at all,” the counsel wrote.

The Caller contacted two publicly available email addresses for Lanterman and called CFS but has not heard back from him at the time of publication.