Mar 14, 2008 8:09 am US/Eastern
Jailed Former Penn Prof Facing New Charges
Currently Serving Sentence For Child Porn
A
former University
of Pennsylvania professor,
currently serving a federal child pornography sentence, faces new charges for
allegedly lying to the U.S. State Department in an attempt to bring a Brazilian
teenager into the country.
Lawrence Scott Ward, 65, a former professor of
marketing at Penn's prestigious Wharton School of Business, was indicted Thursday.
Prosecutors also allege that he shipped images of himself engaging in sex acts
with a boy who was about 16 years old in Fortaleza,
Brazil, in
2006.
Ward sought a visa for the boy from the U.S. consulate in Recife, Brazil,
invoking his Wharton position and saying the teen was the son of a friend and
business acquaintance, according to the indictment. He said the boy's family
was well-off, although he knew it was poor, in an effort to dispel fears that
he would become an illegal immigrant, prosecutors said.
When the boy, identified only as "J.D.," was
denied a visa, authorities allege that Ward told another person in Brazil
to create a bank account in the name of the teen's father. Ward said he would
provide thousands of dollars for the account, according to the indictment.
"I want to show the consulate that his dad is
rich!" Ward said in an e-mail from his university account to the other person, according
to prosecutors. He also provided photographs of a house purported to be the boy's
family home, they said.
The consulate reversed its decision and granted
the teen a visa, but he never entered the country, prosecutors said.
Ward was arrested on Aug. 27, 2006, after
returning from Brazil through
Washington Dulles International
Airport. Customs agents discovered
child pornography on Ward's computer and found DVDs containing videos of Ward
having sex acts with an underage boy, prosecutors said.
Ward pleaded guilty in February 2007 to charges
of importing child porn and was sentenced in May to 15 years in prison. A
number left for the attorney who represented him in that case was not immediately
returned Thursday.
Ward, who is retired, had been scheduled to
teach in the fall of 2006 before university officials relieved him of his
duties after the arrest. Penn spokesman Ron Ozio said the school would have no comment
on the new charges.
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