By Na Jeong-ju
A U.S. district court has rejected Yale University’s request to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Korea’s Dongguk University against it in a high-profile diploma forgery case, paving the way for a trial that may take place in June.
Dongguk, the country’s largest Buddhist school, hailed the decision, saying it has sufficient evidence proving Yale’s negligence and is confident of winning the legal battle.
The school hired Shin Jeong-ah as an art professor after Yale wrongly confirmed that she had earned a doctorate there. Shin, however, was found to have presented fake credentials to Dongguk to get the professor’s job.
Yale later admitted that it misinformed Dongguk about Shin’s diploma due to an administrative error, but Dongguk filed a $50 million compensation suit in 2008, claiming that it suffered huge financial losses due to Yale’s negligence.
Shin had had an affair with Byeon Yang-kyoon, an aide to the late former President Roh Moo-hyun. Byeon resigned as the chief presidential policy planner after the scandal erupted. Shin was also later convicted of academic fraud and embezzlement of gallery funds and served an 18-month prison term.
Byeon was accused of using his influence to get Shin hired by Dongguk.
The school, however, claims that it wouldn’t have hired Shin if it knew that her degree was forged.
“In 2005, we asked Yale to verify the fact that Shin had received a Ph.D. at Yale. We sent a registered letter along with a copy of the Certification Letter provided by Shin to Yale. Days later, Yale confirmed that Shin was a Yale graduate and got the degree. After that, we hired her,” a Dongguk spokesman said, asking not to be named.
“After Shin’s scandalous relationship with Byeon was revealed in 2007, we asked the school to verify Shin’s degree again. Yale then stated that Shin did not receive a Ph.D. from Yale and the Certification Letter was a forgery.”
The spokesman blamed Yale for lying about the registered letter Dongguk sent to Yale in 2005.
“Yale first claimed that it never received the letter from Dongguk, even though it did receive it,” the spokesman said. “Yale later apologized for what it called an administrative error, but kept insisting that it couldn’t take responsibility because it had no intention of damaging Dongguk’s reputation.”
According to media reports, the district court in Connecticut rejected Yale’s demand for dismissal of the lawsuit. It, however, granted Yale’s request to dismiss a civil charge of “reckless and wanton conduct.”