Park Se-heum Helped Shin at Byeon’s Request

The special prosecution team which is investigating the “Shin Jeong-ah gate” plans to request an arrest warrant today for Shin Jeong-ah – the “fake Yale doctor” – for forging private documents and obstruction of justice, among other alleged crimes.

However, it is reported that the prosecution would make a careful decision on requesting a warrant for Byeon Yang-gyun, the former presidential aide, after summonsing him for additional questioning early next month. “It’s virtually impossible to finish the investigation early, before the Chuseok holiday, as there are many suspicions and difficulties to be dealt with,” said a senior official at the prosecution.

The prosecution arrested Shin at the airport last Sunday and questioning of Shin on Monday confirmed that she used a fake doctorate degree from Yale University when she was appointed as a professor at Dongguk University in 2005. and as co-director of the Gwangju Biennale.

Subsequently, the prosecution is set to request the court to issue a warrant against her for private document forgery and obstruction of justice on September 18, when the arrest warrant expires.

It also confirmed after summonsing and questioning Park Se-heum, former president of Daewoo Construction (the incumbent president of the Korea National Housing Corporation), and Kim Chang-rok, president of Korean Development Bank, who sponsored the art exhibition at Sungkok Art Museum, where Shin worked, that they helped her at the request of Byeon who was their high school alumnus.

Taking into consideration that both Daewoo Construction and KDB were receiving state funds, and that the government is the biggest shareholder of state-owned KDB, the prosecution is investigating the suspicion that Byeon could have pressured them to sponsor Shin.

Prosecutors will summons him for questioning after the indictment of Shin is decided.

“As part of the investigation, we summonsed former presidential aide Byeon on September 16. We will request him to appear before the investigation after questioning Shin,” said Gu Bon-min, a senor prosecutor at the Seoul District Prosecutors` Office.

The prosecution also summonsed as witnesses, Dongguk University officials involved in appointing Shin as a professor and officials of the Gwangju Biennale Foundation who were involved in electing her as co-director of the art festival for questioning.

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