Supreme Court Confirms 5-Year Sentence for University President Who Made 1.3 Billion Won by Running Fake University and Selling Degrees

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] The university president who established a fake university in Korea using the name of a U.S. corporation that had not even received approval as an educational institution and sold degrees has been sentenced to prison.

The Supreme Court's 2nd Division (Presiding Justice Park Sang-ok) announced on the 24th that it upheld the original sentence of 5 years in prison in the appeal trial of A (48), who was charged with fraud and violation of the Higher Education Act.

The court stated, "There is no illegality in violating the rules of logic and experience, exceeding the limits of free evaluation of evidence, misrecognizing facts, or misunderstanding the legal principles regarding the fraudulent act, intent to defraud, causation, and the establishment of the violation of the Higher Education Act."

In January 2015, A registered a corporation under the name "Templeton University" in California, USA, and recruited online students in Korea while collecting tuition fees.

A pretended to be the chairman and president of this university and promoted that Templeton University had received approval as a higher education institution from the U.S. federal government and the California state government and was conducting classes on a U.S. campus.

It was advertised that having a degree from this university would allow transfer to domestic universities or admission to graduate schools, and students were recruited not only for bachelor's but also master's and doctoral programs.

However, in reality, Templeton University was not a school officially approved as an educational institution by the U.S. government.

There were no offline classes in the U.S., and it was confirmed that it did not receive related accreditation from U.S. institutions for transfer to domestic universities.

A was arrested and indicted in 2018 on charges of receiving about 1.38 billion KRW in tuition and other fees together with other accomplices through this fake university from January 2015 to October 2017. It is known that about 200 students were victims of A's fraudulent activities.

The first trial recognized that A recruited students under false pretenses using the school's name without approval from the competent authorities and sentenced him to 5 years in prison.

The second trial also upheld the first trial's ruling, stating, "The victims suffered not only financial damage but also irreparable harm as the significant time and effort invested to obtain degrees were all in vain, which cannot be compensated by anything."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.