Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Typhoon]

It looks like Shin Jeong-Ah(original fake degree scandal) has returned to the ROK. Anyone thing she will get jail time for fraud and fleeing the country to escape prosecution??? Here is an article:

http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2007/09/17/200709170043.asp

Shin Jeong-ah, a former art professor who is at the center of a degree-forgery and influence-peddling sandal, apologized yesterday for "causing trouble." This came shortly after she returned to Seoul to face an investigation.
Shin, 35, arrived at 5:10 p.m. at Incheon International Airport, via Japan where she had spent the weekend after flying from New York City. She was immediately escorted by prosecution officials for questioning.

Those close to Shin had said she was preparing to fly back to Korea this month, in order to clear her name. Shin said she would "tell all" to the prosecutors.

The former professor-curator fled to the United States in July this year shortly after she was discovered to have lied about having earned undergraduate and master's degrees from the University of Kansas and a doctorate from Yale University.

Shin was also found to have had close ties with Byeon Yang-kyoon, 58, who was President Roh Moo-hyun's chief secretary on national policy before he stepped down last week.

Byeon, a married man, is suspected of using his authority to pressure companies to sponsor Shin when she was curator at the Sungkok Art Museum. Banks and conglomerates including Daewoo Engineering & Construction and the Korea Development Bank donated over 1 billion won ($1.07 million) during the four years that Shin was curator. Byeon was, at the time, Minister of Planning and Budget.



The former aide also may have influenced Dongguk University to employ Shin in 2005, even though he knew about her fake credentials, and he apparently used his leverage to persuade authorities of the Gwangju Biennale to hire her as co-director, even after they discovered her fraudulent records. Another charge against Byeon is that he used government money to buy paintings through Shin.

Hours before Shin arrived, the prosecution summoned Byeon to answer questions on these and related matters. Prosecutors also accessed the computer that the former aide used in his office, but Cheong Wa Dae officials were doubtful that evidence will come from this source, since all the e-mails transmitted through office computers are filtered.

Even after the prosecution uncovered the intimate e-mails she exchanged with Byeon, Shin insisted on her innocence.

In a recent interview with a weekly magazine, the former professor said that "the press was telling unscrupulous lies" about her. She also said she could prove she received a doctorate from Yale University.

Yale has notified Korean authorities that she was not enrolled at the school.

Other suspicions regarding Shin involve how she managed to invest millions of won in stocks, despite being a credit delinquent.


By Kim Ji-hyun

[CentralCali]

The cynic in me forecasts the following scenario: The "competent" authorities here will probably agree with her that she really did receive a degree from Yale and it's Yale's "incompetence" for neglecting to list her enrollment and graduation. It's just another example of how foreigners can't be trusted when dealing with Koreans.

I'm not a betting person. If you are, what odds would you give on the above scenario coming true?

[bellum99]

Koreans have no long term memory and so they will all forget about it after a while. If the press doesn't remind them then they easily forget. Nothing will happen to Shin because the government doesn't want to do anything. It will just go away like Dr. Hwang.

[jaganath69]

The above two posts raise concerns I have over the matter. Already Shin has gone into spin mode about how her academic supervisor left, how she bought a gown for graduation and if she adds a xenophobic angle to her story, I fear it will be bought, lock, stock and barrel by the public. As for forgetting, it's not so much that as the tendency to resurrect the downfallen, Hwang getting ready to have another crack at cloning or the North Korean agent who bombed the plane getting released and bombarded with marriage offers. Truth seems to have no real place in Korean society.

[mindmetoo]

[the eye]

[Unposter]

Anyone got links to the pictures?

[mindmetoo]

[Young FRANKenstein]

[RACETRAITOR]

[bradgilbert]

[CentralCali]

She might not even have to put on a defense! Court rejects arrest warrant (bolding mine):

[igotthisguitar]

[jinju]

[Adventurer]

If the woman were a white Canadian teacher then she would be put in jail. They will just put her to cultural shame. I guess that is still very bad....