Ex-justice minister's wife gets 4-year prison term over academic fraud scandal

Chung Kyung-sim arrives at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho District, Wednesday, for a trial over charges related to illegal document fabrication to get her daughter admitted to a medical school and illegal investment in a private equity fund. Yonhap

Former Justice Minister Cho Kuk's wife was sentenced by a Seoul court on Wednesday to imprisonment of four years for academic fraud.

The Seoul Central District Court handed down the jail sentence, together with a fine of 500 million won (US$451,000), to Chung Kyung-sim, the wife of the former presidential secretary for civil affairs and a close aide to President Moon Jae-in.

The court also ordered the immediate imprisonment of Chung.

Chung was indicted in November last year on 15 counts of charges related to her daughter's college admission and her dubious investment in a private equity fund (PEF).

Chung is accused of being involved in fabricating documentation from 2013-2014, including a college presidential citation, in order to get her daughter admitted to medical school.

Chung's lawyer, Kim Chil-jun, answers to journalists after Chung's trial at the Seoul Central District Court on Wednesday. Yonhap

She was also charged with investing in the PEF using somebody else's name to bypass the code of ethics for public officials and embezzling around 150 million won (US$135,000) through a bogus consulting contract.

The 58-year-old professor of Dongyang University is also accused of having been involved in the destruction of evidence by instructing her asset manager to conceal her office PC and delete PEF-related documents.

She has denied all allegations against her, arguing that academic records of her daughter were just overstated instead of being fabricated and her PEF deal was not an investment but a simple loan.

Chung was released from nearly seven months of detention in May after the Seoul court decided not to extend her arrest.

In the previous hearing on Nov. 5, prosecutors demanded a prison term of seven years, a fine of 900 million won and a forfeiture of 160 million won for Chung.

Cho, who resigned as justice minister in October last year after just one month in office, was also indicted later on a dozen charges, including bribery, in connection with his daughter's academic credentials and school scholarship, as well as his family's suspicious private equity investments. (Yonhap)