Women's University head under probe

By Lee Kyung-min

Lee Seon-jae

Gwangju Women’s University (GWU) President Lee Seon-jae is being investigated for allegedly misappropriating state subsidies totaling some 410 million won ($370,000) in 2013, police said Wednesday.

Nine GWU faculty members are also being questioned about their possible involvement.

The Gwangju Metropolitan Police Agency said Lee, 52, allegedly forged documents in order to get subsidies from the Ministry of Education, promising that she would use them to set up an online institute.

At the time, Lee used the names of six faculty members to receive the money, and allegedly paid each of them 500,000 won a month for seven months, for a total of 21 million won, after getting the subsidies.

Also, Lee refused to pay a contractor who she hired to manage the online institute system for months.

Instead, Lee allegedly spent the money on such things as insurance premium payments for herself, lawyer fees and paying university faculty members, police said.

Separately, the university is embroiled in a lawsuit for dismissing a whistleblower who told police about the allegations of misappropriation.

Lee’s husband ― former GWU President Oh Jang-won ― and his brother, whose name was withheld, were indicted in 2011 for embezzling some 1.5 billion won ($1.3 million) in university funds and for receiving bribes from a number of construction companies in exchange for helping them win the bid to build a university library.

Oh resigned after the allegations were reported, and his wife succeeded him as president.

In 2013, the Gwangju District Court sentenced him to three years in prison, and ordered him to return the money he embezzled.

Oh’s brother was also sentenced to 18 months in prison. The younger Oh was the chief director of university library.