Byeon, Shin Arrested
By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
Former college professor Shin Jeong-ah was arrested Thursday on charges of faking degrees to obtain employment and embezzling funds from a Seoul museum where she worked as a curator.
Law enforcement officials also detained Byeon Yang-kyoon, a former chief presidential secretary for national policy, rumored to have had a romantic relationship with Shin, over suspicions that he peddled influence to help her land a university job and pressured businessmen to donate to the Sungkok Art Museum.
After rejecting the initial request for the arrest warrants last month, the Seoul Western District Court reversed its decision after agreeing with the prosecution’s conclusion that the two suspects attempted to destroy evidence.
``(They) attempted to destroy evidence and, as likely accomplices in crime, could continue to do so,’’ said senior judge Jang Jin-hoon.
``Considering the magnitude of the case, there is also reason to believe that they could attempt to flee the country,’’ he said.
Shin is accused of fabricating a doctorate degree and other documents from Yale University and used them to land a spot as an art professor at Seoul’s Dongguk University in 2005.
^Prosecutors have also charged Shin with embezzling 240 million won ($262,000) in museum funds and 100 million won in artists’ commissions between 2004 and 2006.
The 35-year-old had enjoyed a flourishing career on the local art scene, and was even named as a director of the Gwangju Biennale Arts Festival in July just weeks before the scandal erupted.
Byeon, 58, who was forced to quit his post at Cheong Wa Dae as the scandal exploded in the face of President Roh Moo-hyun, is suspected of abusing his authority to land his alleged girlfriend on the Dongguk University payroll.
Shin has since been fired from the university and stripped of the directorship at the art festival.
The court’s decision was met with a sigh of relief from the prosecution who had feared the embarrassment of a consecutive snub. Investigators have been struggling to add solid material to their circumstantial evidence about the murky relationship between Shin and Byeon, searching their homes, offices and tracing bank accounts.
Prosecutors claimed Shin should be considered an ``accomplice’’ who conspired with Byeon to land the university job and draw donations to the museum, and that both remain as threats to destroy evidence. They also raised suspicions that the two had agreed on alibis to tell prosecutors ahead of their summons.
In rejecting the initial arrest warrants for both Shin and Byeon last month, the court ruled that they were not likely to destroy evidence or flee and had been cooperating with investigators since their first summons three weeks ago.
During questioning, Shin admitted falsifying her academic credentials but denied pocketing museum funds, claiming that the money from corporate donations and commissions was handed over to Sungkok director Park Moon-soon.
Although Park, the wife of former Ssangyong Group Chairman Kim Suk-won, denied Shin’s claims, prosecutors found around 5 billion won in cash and checks during a search of her house and suspect some of the money to be part of the misappropriated funds.
Investigators also recovered a jewel necklace, worth about 18 million won, that Shin received from Park and are looking into whether this could be related to the embezzlement of the funds.