Professors at Seoul National University who misappropriated graduate students' labor costs and scholarships to pay for dinner parties were indicted and put on trial.
The 7th Criminal Division of the Seoul Central Prosecutor's Office (Chief Prosecutor Man-heum Lee) announced on the 23rd that it had indicted six former and current professors of the Department of Western Language and Literature at Seoul National University with a fine of 10 million won each for fraud.
Summary indictment is a process in which the prosecution requests the court to impose a fine or a fine for negligence only through a written hearing instead of a formal trial.
If the court or the parties do not express their intention to formally refer the case to a trial, the sentence will be finalized.
According to the prosecution, they are accused of fraudulently recommending graduate students as teaching assistants from 2014 to 2018 and then stealing about 56 million won of research grants for graduate students.
He is also accused of receiving about 16 million won from graduate students as if they were applying for seasonal lectures for three years from 2015 into a lump sum account in the name of an individual teaching assistant managed by the department office.
It was found that the professors had some of the scholarships and labor costs paid by graduate students transferred to the department account under the name of 'batch management' or 'joint management' and then used it for department events, operating expenses, and professors' dinners.
Some professors transferred tens of millions of won to their personal securities accounts, but it was found that this money was not used for stock investments.
Meanwhile, it was confirmed that among the indicted professors were a former professor who was dismissed and on trial for sexually harassing a graduate student in 2019.
Previously, in July, Seoul National University's full-time auditor's office took disciplinary action against five incumbent professors, excluding former professors, who were dismissed after discovering a circumstance that last year's graduate students' labor costs were misappropriated.
It is reported that these five professors returned all of the intercepted funds to the Seoul National University corporate account.
Regarding the summary indictment, an official from the prosecution explained, "No money was personally used by the professors by managing the money in the department's account, and some of them were returned."
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(Photo = Yonhap News)