By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter
An appellate court upheld a lower court's sentence of 18 months imprisonment imposed on diploma fabricator Shin Jeong-ah, Tuesday. Byeon Yang-kyoon, the former presidential policy planner under former president Roh Moo-hyun, received a one-year prison sentence suspended for two years and was ordered to do 160 hours of community service.
``Shin's allegation that she earned a doctorate degree in the United States proved false. Byeon's wrongdoing is also punishable given he used his position for personal interest,'' the court said in its ruling.
Shin, 36, was indicted with physical detention on charges of fabricating academic credentials and embezzling funds from corporate sponsorships of an art gallery where she served as a curator.
Byeon was accused of abusing his position as the top budget minister to ensure Heungdeok Temple in Ulju, Ulsan, got state subsidies. In return, the temple's chief monk, Yeongbae, got Shin a job in 2005 at Dongguk University where he was head of the board directors.
Byeon is also accused of having misused his power to force a number of companies to sponsor the gallery.
Shin allegedly fabricated diplomas to show, among other things, that she obtained a Ph.D. from Yale University. She was hired as an assistant professor at Dongguk and as a director for the 2008 Gwangju Biennale.
But later, a Seoul National University professor who graduated from Yale raised suspicions that the format of Shin's thesis was different from the one used at Yale.
Dongguk University and the biennale foundation are currently suing her.