Prosecutors Request Forgery Warrant for Shin Jeong-ah

The Special Investigation Team of the Prosecutors’ Office in charge of the Shin Jeong-ah probe requested an arrest warrant for document forgery and obstruction of justice on September 18.

The fake professor of Dongguk University is accused of forging her graduate and doctorate degrees (from Kansas University and Yale University, respectively) and confirming document under the name of the vice president of Yale University The false credentials had been presented when she was selected as professor in August 2005.

The false documents were also used when she applied for the post of chief art director of the Art Biennale in Gwangju. Shin also faces accusations of working as a part-time lecturer in four universities in Seoul for two years from March 2003 without the proper credentials.

Shin had refused to cooperate with the warrant deliberation process by saying that, “I told everything there was to know to prosecutors.”

Prosecutors confiscated relevant documents from Byeon Yang-gyun’s house (the former presidential secretary involved in this case) in Gyeonggi Province, his residence in Seoul, and the two Seoul hotels he stayed in. They have been analyzing them.

Prosecutors have found that the residence Byeon stayed from July last year to date was paid for by a third person’s credit card. The residence bill was 26 million won. Prosecutors are trying to find out that person’s identity.

In the meantime, this newspaper acquired a Sungkok Museum Foundation’s annual report for 2004-2006 from Park Chan-sook, a Grand National Party (GNP) lawmaker. The report shows that most of the art museum’s revenues came from corporate advertisements, sponsorships, and product sales, not from exhibitions.

The Korea Development Bank earlier announced a total of 70 million won in donations for the museum so far, but the annual report showed 443.6 million won donated in advertising in 2006 alone. The museum and the bank said the report was in error.

needjung@donga.com fineday@donga.com