It was later confirmed that a foreign professor at Seoul National University fled to his home country while being investigated for unfairly taking over 100 million won in research funds.
Investigative authorities failed to secure new recruits because they did not take measures such as bans from leaving the country in time for the professor who was booked as a suspect, and the prosecution has been suspended.
According to Yonhap News coverage today (7th), foreigner A, who was a professor at Seoul National University's Graduate School of Dentistry, was investigated by the police on charges of illegally receiving R&D expenses.
The Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Science and ICT are also investigating the case.
Person A was reported to the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission in March 2018 on charges of unfairly taking research funds from 2013 to 2017.
In August of the same year, the ACRC forwarded the case to the police, the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Science and Technology.
If the ACRC determines that investigation is necessary due to the credibility of the report, it will transfer the case to the relevant agency.
It is known that Mr. A got the wages paid to master's students back and received wages by falsely registering his family unrelated to research as a doctoral researcher.
The circumstances in which meeting expenses such as meals for researchers were used privately were also identified.
In this way, the amount of money that Mr. A got was delivered to a total of 120 million won.
Person B, who was one of Mr. A's tutors at the time, said, "At that time, the labor cost for the master's degree participating in the study was 1.6 million won to 1.8 million won per person per month. I withdrew it and returned it all to Mr. A.”
He also added, "Mr. A was paid 2 to 3 million won a month in the name of his family who falsely registered as a researcher."
Person A, who was under investigation, departed for her home country on a sabbatical in 2019, and Seoul National University retired in November of last year when Mr. A did not return to work.
A police official said, "At the time, Mr. A was responding cooperatively to the investigation, and considering his status as a university professor, there was no need to take immigration-related measures."
A Seoul National University official said, "When the embezzlement issue surfaced, the school tried to summon Mr. A, but he refused and resigned from office.
The official added, "Since Mr. A is currently retired, there is nothing more the school can do about Mr. A."
(Photo = Yonhap News)