Art gallery con artist resurfaces with juicy memoir

A former con artist whose 2007 scandal brought down a presidential aide claimed Tuesday that she was close to the late former President Roh Moo-hyun and was offered a professorship from Chung Un-chan when he was president of Seoul National University.

Shin Jeong-ah, who lied about getting a doctorate from Yale University and had an affair with leading presidential aide Byeon Yang-kyoon, held a news conference Tuesday for the release of her memoir “4001.”

She claimed to have been close to Roh and that former Prime Minister Chung, who was president of Seoul National from 2002 to 2006, offered her a professorship at his school. Shin mentioned the names of politicians, artists, scholars and journalists whom she said were implicated.

“President Roh wanted to meet me via my maternal grandmother,” she said. In her memoir, she said Roh introduced her to a lawmaker who was one of his close aides and encouraged her to watch the American TV drama about the White House, “The West Wing.”

On what happened after the fabrication of her educational background was exposed, Shin said, “When I tried to return to Seoul, I heard that President Roh adamantly opposed my return home.”

Saying her relationship with Chung began when the latter was president of Seoul National, she added, “I met Chung in early spring 2005. He said it would be OK if I become a professor of art history and manage an art gallery at the same time.”

Shin also claimed that Chung seemed to have romantic feelings for her.

Moreover, she said a newspaper reporter sexually harassed her at a drinking party with figures in the art world.

On how she falsified her academic background, Shin said, “I employed an American broker in the process of writing dissertations, receiving degrees and fabricating documents. I never personally copied dissertations or fabricated degrees.”

Through giving full details of her relationship with Byeon, she denied that companies gave donations to her art gallery under pressure from Byeon, “He introduced me to related figures but no pressure was involved,” she said.

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