Seoul, South Korea, May 14, 2006 / 22:00 pm
Cloning scientist Hwang Woo-suk was indicted Friday on charges of fraud, embezzlement and bioethics violations in a scandal over faked stem-cell research, reported the Associated Press.
Hwang was hailed worldwide until investigations late last year showed that he had fabricated key data. The scientist had claimed that he created the world's first cloned human embryos and extracted stem cells from them.
Hwang was charged with fraud for accepting $2 million in private donations based on the outcome of the falsified research, and for allegedly embezzling nearly $900,000 in private and government research funds, reported the AP.
Five members of Hwang's research team were indicted as well. Three were charged with fraud, one with tampering research samples and one with bioethics violations, reported the AP.