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- Harvard researcher accused of smuggling frog embryos faces additional charges</p>
<p>June 26, 2025 at 6:07 AM</p>
<p>FILE - This undated photo provided by Polina Pugacheva in April 2025 shows Kseniia Petrova, a Russian-born scientist who was a researcher at Harvard University. (Polina Pugacheva via AP, File)</p>
<p>BOSTON (AP) — A Harvard University researcher accused of smuggling clawed frog embryos into the United States was indicted Wednesday on additional charges.</p>
<p>Kseniia Petrova, a Russian-born scientist conducting cancer research for Harvard Medical School, was indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury in Boston on one count of concealment of a material fact, one count of false statement and one count of smuggling goods into the United States. She had been charged with the smuggling in May.</p>
<p>Despite the additional charges, Petrova will remain on pretrial release.</p>
<p>A lawyer for Petrova could not be reached for comment.</p>
<p>She was returning from a vacation from France in February when she was questioned by U.S. Customs and Border Protection at Boston Logan International Airport.</p>
<p>Petrova, 30, had stopped at a lab specializing in splicing superfine sections of frog embryos and obtained a package of samples for research. Federal officials on the social media website X accused her of lying about "carrying substances" into the country and alleged that she planned to smuggle the embryos through customs without declaring them.</p>
<p>She told The in an interview in April that she did not realize the items needed to be declared and was not trying to sneak anything into the country.</p>
<p>Petrova was told her visa was being canceled and detained by immigration officials in Vermont after her initial arrest. She filed a petition seeking her release and was briefly sent to an ICE facility in Louisiana, after which a judge ruled the immigration officers' actions were unlawful. In May, she was charged with one count of smuggling.</p>
<p>If convicted of the smuggling charge, Petrova faces a sentence of up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. She also faces a sentence of up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 on the charges of concealment of material fact and false statements.</p>
Source: AOL General News
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