Steven Kurtz, the art professor indicted for fraud last week because he received bacteria from a scientist to use in a performance art exhibit about biotechnology, will be arraigned today (July 8) in federal court in Buffalo. He faces four counts of wire and mail fraud, each punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Robert Ferrell, the genetics professor who supplied him the bacteria, will not appear in court today, because he is recovering from surgery. He will be arraigned on the same counts later, on a date yet to be determined.
The indictments allege that the two professors defrauded Pitt because Ferrell used university funds to pay for the two kinds of bacteria he gave Kurtz, an associate professor of art at the Buffalo campus of the State University of New York. They also defrauded the biological supply house where Ferrell bought the bacteria, ...
