Dulwich College Seoul suspected of embezzlement

By Jhoo Dong-chan

Dulwich College Seoul is suspected of having embezzled school funds using a paper company abroad, prosecutors said Thursday.

Investigators raided the foreign school Wednesday.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office said that they confiscated documents related to school management and account records from Dulwich College in southern Seoul.

Prosecutors said the school allegedly set up a paper company abroad to divert several billion won from its school budget.

The prosecution said it will also question the school authorities as to whether they sent money to create a slush fund using a paper company overseas to evade paying taxes.

“The investigation focuses mainly on the embezzled funds,” said an official.

However, the school denied the allegations. “Such allegations are groundless. Dulwich College Seoul has never embezzled its funding,” the school’s legal representative Lee Tae-yop said in a press release.

He said it will cooperate sincerely with the prosecutors’ investigation.

Opened on Sep. 2 2010, Dulwich College Seoul has been one of the most desired schools among wealthy Korean parents. Annual tuition for the school was reportedly around 28.2 million won ($24,260) as of 2014. However, with lunches and school bus fees, parents of school student are required to pay more than 30 million won every year.

The Seoul-branch school, which can accommodate up to 700 students, currently has 592 students enrolled in the academic program. Of them, 25.5 percent are Korean students.

Under government regulations, Korean students should constitute 30 percent of total enrolment and only candidates that have lived abroad for three years or more are eligible to apply for entry.

There are 47 international and foreign schools operating in the country. Like Dulwich College Seoul, their annual tuition fees can cost up to 30 million won, constantly provoking debate over “silver spoon privileges” in the education sector.

In 2012, the school was investigated by the prosecution over fraudulent admissions along with two other foreign schools. Sixteen students were found to have been illicitly enrolled in the school.

The investigation could expand again into the issue of admission fraud if they find irregularities in evidence seized, said officials from the prosecution office.

An official at the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education said, “The educational authorities will take necessary measures against the school if any irregularities are found in the prosecutors’ investigation.”