A disgraced former university professor has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for embezzlement and forging her academic credentials.I've been curious to see what her sentence would be since an English teacher was sentenced to 6 months in prison last July for using a fake degree to get a job at a hagwon. I've never heard what became of that person, but it might be worth reiterating: using a fake diploma to work at a hagwon received a penalty of 6 months in prison, while using a fake diploma to work at Dongguk University (as well as embezzling money from an art gallery) received a penalty of 18 months. How unsurprising.
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Thursday, April 03, 2008
Eighteen months
Via ROK Drop, we learn that Shin Jeong-ah has been sentenced to eighteen months in prison:
I was shocked by the six month sentence for the foreign guy as well, and would also like to hear some updates. It was surprising news because pretty much every Tom, Dick, and Kim around here is using embellished credentials. Well, not every, but enough to make it so commonplace to almost warrant no comment at all.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I recall somebody pointing out---Brendon Carr, maybe---that the foreigner got six months not just for defrauding the school, but rather for using a fraudulent document to obtain a visa. That was the real offense. Now, is his crime worse than, say, the radio host who used her fake credentials to earn hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of dollars over her career? Worse than the monk who used fake credentials to bolster his audience? Worse than some random guy who fakes his resume to get a better wife, a better job, or a better circle of friends? Eh, no, doesn't really seem so, but using fraudulent documents to get something like a visa is a big deal, and I don't think it should be taken lightly? Is the foreigner's case "worse" than Shin Jeong-ah's? Eh . . . I dunno, both are bad, but the foreigner wasn't just jailed for having a fake degree.