Wednesday, July 22, 2020


Seoul National University students accuse faculty of money laundering

Students at Seoul National University are demanding school authorities conduct an audit of the finances of the Spanish department for the years 2009 to 2013. File Photo by Yonhap/EPA-EFE

July 21 (UPI) -- Students at Seoul National University are calling for justice following revelations professors at the top-ranked South Korean school seized scholarships intended for graduate students.

A student committee from the school's college of the humanities said Tuesday during a press conference they are calling for the funds to be returned. They also urged the school to take preventative measures against corrupt faculty practices, News 1 reported.

The students are demanding school authorities conduct an audit of the finances of the Spanish department for the years 2009 to 2013, when graduate students may have not received compensation.

On Tuesday, a student who had previously filed a sexual harassment complaint against a professor in the Spanish department urged the university to take action.


Other protesters described the actions of faculty as a case of money laundering. Graduate students have become unwitting enablers of faculty corruption, the students said.

The press conference on the university campus comes a few weeks after six professors, all in the Spanish department, were suspected of taking funds intended for students. The school found five out of the six suspects were found guilty of illegal activity.

The South Korean press report also states a total of eight professors at the university have been laundering money set aside for students for years.

From 2014, the faculty members had siphoned close to $110,000 from students, according to News 1.


In 2019, the university's Spanish department made headlines when a faculty member was accused of sexually harassing a former graduate student.

A
ccording to MoneyToday and other local news services, the student's adviser had targeted her with inappropriate touching and rhetoric for years, including during a trip to a conference in Spain.

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