Embezzlement Suspicions Lead to Hwang

Professor Hwang Woo-suk of Seoul National University is strongly suspected of embezzling 2.5 billion won from 7.2 billion won in misappropriated state and civilian funds donated to his research efforts, a Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) report said yesterday.

The Board of Audit and Inspection, which has been investigating Hwang’s research funding, made the announcement and released its inspection results to prosecutors for final judgement.

The BAI also announced that of the 250 million won given by Hwang for research purposes to Park Ki-young, the former presidential aide for Information, Science and Technology, Park received the money but has yet to submit any research results.

Embezzlement Suspicions-

Professor Hwang spent 24.6 billion won out of the 36.9 billion won of research funds provided to him since 1993, which includes state and civilian donations.

According to the BAI, Hwang “mismanaged” 7.3 billion won from the research fund, and there are strong suspicions that 2.5 billion won from this amount was embezzled.

The BAI probe revealed that Hwang himself handled the accounts for funds for materials and labor costs from Seoul National University’s veterinary college, and used the money sent to these accounts.

Hwang managed 1.9 billion won from the civilian funds donated through the Korea Science Foundation in his own account, put 700 million won in a one year expiring fixed deposit security under his own name, and withdrew 776.43 million won in cash and gave it to subordinate researchers, including Kim Sun-jong.

BAI officials explained that the deposit accounts were mainly for investment purposes, which aroused suspicion. The BAI discovered that Hwang concluded research contracts in the SNU president’s name and received funds in the account in the name of the president, as well. Hwang also received 4.3 billion won in total from six different companies into his own account, which he spent discreetly. A BAI official also stated that Hwang gave a dozen politicians hundreds of thousands won each.

However, the BAI failed to find out exactly what Hwang spent the money on.

Former presidential aide Park Ki-young received money but submitted no research results-

According to the BAI, Park received 250 million won from Hwang after being commissioned for two research projects while holding office in Sooncheon University from 2001 to 2004.

The contract stipulates that the researcher has to submit research result reports within one month of the final date of the research period. Park has not yet submitted a report, more than one year after the final date.

It is said that when asked by BAI inspectors, Park said he didn’t know the final report had not been submitted because fellow colleagues took his place as the research head after he moved on to Cheong Wa Dae.

The BAI also found that Park did some fraud accounting himself with part of the research funds received from Hwang. The BAI will look into this matter in a national research and development investigation starting February 13.

Min-Hyuk Park mhpark@donga.com