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By Lee Kyung-min
A Seoul National University (SNU) professor is under investigation for allegedly misappropriating government subsidies of about 200 million won ($181,000), the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) said Monday.
The science professor, whose identity was withheld, allegedly misappropriated the funds from 2011 to 2014, and submitted a false report to inflate research costs.
He allegedly used some of the money to run a start-up company, and the rest to support his brother's company.
The allegations came a week after the state auditor concluded an investigation into another SNU professor, surnamed Kim, on similar charges.
It is alleged that Kim illegally received about 310 million won ($281,000) in government funds by forging documents, and embezzled about 220 million won ($199,000) from July 2008 until May last year, said the BAI.
The auditor referred Kim's case to the prosecution, and asked the university to dismiss him.
SNU refused to comment on whether Kim would be dismissed, saying the level of punishment would depend on the prosecution's findings.
The BAI said that Kim allegedly forged reports to win the subsidy using the names of his graduate students, who were unqualified to apply for such funding because they held jobs at private companies at the time of application.
Kim also used their stamps, bank accounts and pin numbers in forging documents to make it look like they withdrew the money,
Under the students' names, Kim received monthly payments ranging from about 500,000 won ($453) up to 1.8 million ($1,600) per person.
Kim denied the allegations saying he spent the money on his students' tuition and his office expenses for administrative reasons.
However, the BAI dismissed his claim because of a lack of evidence of such expenditure.
The BAI ordered five government institutions to recover the misused funds they approved for Kim.
The five include the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning; the National Research Council of Science and Technology (NST); the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP); the Korea Environmental Industry and the Technology Institute (KEITI) Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement (KAIA).
The BAI also plans to ban Kim from participating in any government project.
