Korean Job Discussion Forums

[wylies99]

Hundreds of ING workers busted for forged diplomas
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2896739

October 30, 2008
A group of 420 ING Life Insurance workers were booked yesterday on charges of faking their college diplomas, police said.

The Seodaemun Police Precinct announced yesterday that they charged 120 sales managers with forging university diplomas for applicants, and 300 financial consultants for submitting the bogus diplomas when they applied for jobs at the global insurance firm.

According to police, the 120 managers possessed a total of 270 fake diploma templates from local four-year universities. They provided the forged documents to 300 high school graduates who did not fulfill the minimum qualification - an undergraduate degree - in order to hire them amid employee shortages.

The charges were laid after an investigation into a 38-year-old professional forger, identified only as Bu. As part of that probe earlier this year, police confiscated the application materials of 5,000 ING financial consultants working in the metropolitan area in May.

After analyzing the documents, police identified the 300 fakes. There are currently 10,000 sales managers and financial consultants working for ING across the country.

Under Korean law, forging an official document can result in 10 years in prison; faking a private document can get you five years or a fine of up to 10 million won ($7,037).

In response to the embarrassing scandal, ING said in an official statement that the firm promises to tighten up its recruiting process.

It also said it would severely punish all workers involved in the forgery scandal after police complete their investigation.

�We have begun our own investigation. In contrast to other insurance companies, a college diploma is required for a financial consultant position at ING, and we think this led some high school graduates to use fake diplomas in attempting to enter the firm,� said No Gu-mi, an ING public relations representative. �We haven�t received the list of names from police yet. We will continue to help the police in their investigation.�

Police, meanwhile, plan to expand their probe. �The fake diplomas that we confiscated are very sophisticated. We believe more people are involved in this forgery scandal,� said a police officer who asked not to be named. �We will continue to investigate other firms.�


By Park Sang-woo Staff Reporter [[email protected]]

[wylies99]

Makes you wonder how many more Koreans have fake diplomas? How many "profs"? How many public school teachers? How many bank employees?

[Whistleblower]

Surely if ING checked references, they would be able to confirm whether they graduated for a university.

[Scotticus]

Not to say this doesn't happen in the West, but when was the last time you heard about someone getting caught with a fake degree? Honestly, I can't remember EVER seeing anything like this in my first 22 years of life.

I also think all these forged diplomas are funny, considering Korea boasts about its high percentage of college graduates and its focus on "education."

[PeteJB]

Blimey, 10 years in prison, that's a bit extreme. Granted, if someone were in a position of power and abusing that, then adding more years to their sentence would be appropriate.

[umpittse]

[justaguy]

I heard from a person who works for that company that the number of people busted is now up to 640.

[jvalmer]

[crescent]

[Paji eh Wong]

[bassexpander]

[buymybook]

Ha! "In order to hire them amid employee shortages." Notice the plural form of shortage.

Since when has there been employee shortages in S. Korea any time recently? Me thinks they hired those people(mostly men) to pay them less than a "REAL" College Graduate. I'm sure they could have found plenty of females that qualified for those jobs.

I would NEVER trust that company to invest my money. This is what "ING" says on their website...
Our Mission
�Setting the standard in helping our customers manage their financial future.�

No wonder the world economy is where it's at.

[steroidmaximus]

[NoExplode]

[Bibbitybop]