A 70-year-old physician at the VA Medical Center in Bedford, Massachusetts, is facing federal charges for child pornography-related offenses. Dr. Sven Knudsen Ljaamo was indicted on one count of receipt and one count of possession of child pornography, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Ljaamo had been arrested on April 23, 2025, following a CyberTip that over 100 files of suspected child sexual abuse material (CSAM) had been uploaded to his Google account.
Details from the indictment reveal that Ljaamo supposedly confessed to viewing, downloading, and saving illicit content involving female minors. A search of his electronic devices reportedly unearthed several CSAM files among tens of thousands of pornography files, some of which were located on a cell phone in his office at the medical center. Upon conviction, each count carries a hefty maximum penalty—up to 20 years in federal prison, up to a lifetime of supervised release, and fines that could total $250,000. It should be noted that these are maximum potential punishments and sentencing will ultimately be determined by a federal district court judge.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, along with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General and local police departments, collaborated on the case. The prosecution is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sandra Gonzalez Sanchez, with the overall operation being part of Project Safe Childhood. This initiative, launched by the Department of Justice in 2006, aims to address the critical issue of child sexual exploitation and abuse across the country.
