A national university professor who stole hundreds of thousands in labor costs and scholarships for graduate students has been sentenced to a suspended prison term.
According to legal sources, on May 6th, Judge Park Sung Min of the Chuncheon District Court sentenced a university professor to one year in prison, suspended for two years. The professor, a man in his 50s employed at a national university, was indicted on fraud charges.
The professor was brought to trial on charges of stealing about $329,000 in labor costs, research scholarships, and research allowances from 18 grad students on 656 occasions from June 2015 to March 2021.
The investigation revealed while the professor was carrying out a national research and development project through the university’s industry-academic cooperation foundation, he deceived the foundation into believing that labor costs were being paid to the students by managing bank accounts and cards in the names of the students who were registered as researchers.
The professor was found to have committed the crime by applying for labor cost payments to the industry-academic cooperation foundation 656 times, recommending recipients for scholarships, and applying for labor cost payments through other research managers.
During the trial, the professor denied the charges, saying, “I kept the bankbooks and cards from the grad students for convenience in executing research funds, but the grad students still had the right to dispose of labor costs.” However, the court did not accept this and found him innocent of stealing about $14,500 on 32 occasions.
The court criticized him for “misusing student labor costs without properly preparing the basis.” They also stated, “Even if the grad students could withdraw money through mobile banking, they could not freely withdraw money without the professor’s permission, and the fact that the grad students kept a considerable amount of the withdrawn cash in the professor’s account confirms the charges.”
The court explained, “There is no evidence that the professor used it for personal gain. He paid tuition and living expenses for the grad students and spent on publication fees.” They also noted, “About $154,000 of the stolen money has been recovered, and the defendant has deposited about $162,000. Most of the damage has been recovered, and the fact that the fellow professors have petitioned for leniency was considered.”
