Bogus Yale Graduate Faces Arrest
Her Alleged Patron to Be Summoned Again
By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
An arrest warrant is likely to be sought for 35-year-old former assistant professor Shin Jeong-ah today over her alleged fabrication of academic credentials.
The prosecution will also summon again Byeon Yang-kyoon, former Cheong Wa Dae policy planner following a first round of questioning Sunday. It will request an arrest warrant for him if allegations that he abused power to patronize Shin, his long-time romantic partner, are confirmed. But prosecutors have difficulty in securing evidence to issue an arrest warrant for the ``sugar daddy.''
The prosecution said Monday that it will ask the court to approve its request to arrest Shin, who returned to Korea Sunday after a two-month stay in the U.S., for forgery and interference in the performance of duty.
She has been undergoing questioning since her arrival at Incheon International Airport Sunday afternoon.
Shin allegedly fabricated diplomas to show, among other things, that she obtained a Ph.D. at Yale University. She was hired as an assistant professor at Dongguk University in Seoul and as a director for the 2008 Gwangju Biennale. The school and the biennale foundation are currently suing her.
Prosecutors scanned Byeon's computer at Cheong Wa Dae to secure evidence of his alleged patronage of Shin as they earlier found evidence of Byeon and Shin's close relationship from e-mails on Shin's computer.
They suspected her ``sugar daddy'' Byeon peddled influence to get Shin employed, to have her receive sponsorships from companies for exhibitions at Sungkok Art Museum where she worked as a curator, and to make government agencies buy artwork through Shin.
Prosecutors are cautious in disclosing their interim investigation results as Shin and Byeon appear to be colluding with each other over their testimony through their lawyers who are colleagues. They say it was not pure coincidence that Shin arrived in Seoul hours after Byeong was summoned by the prosecution.
Shin came back to Korea Sunday, the same day that Byeon voluntarily appeared for questioning.
In the meantime, museum staff raised the suspicion that the Ph.D. thesis Shin claimed to have written for Yale was hastily created in Korea in May 2005. This contradicts her claim that she went to the U.S. to find a tutor who helped her write the paper.
According to the staff, Shin typewrote a doctorate thesis copying it from one submitted to the University of Virginia and had Sungkok museum interns check it for spelling errors by comparing it with the original.
A staff member reportedly said she did not know why Shin did such thing until news of the fake Yale Ph.D. broke in July.
Shin kept denying the forgery, saying she gave an oral defense of the thesis. But a Seoul National University professor who graduated from Yale said the university does not have a defense procedure, and that the format of Shin's thesis is different from the one used at Yale.