Both the thesis and the volunteer work are a ‘big hit’… Fake Korea University student fooled even Seoul National University [교수 엄마와 가짜 고대] - Discussion by Truth Investigation Group Sherlock

“Thank you so much for always helping me like this. Thanks to this, I was able to win an award. From papers to posters to experiments, thank you so much.” (November 28, 2016)

What is it that makes me “so” thankful? Who “always” helped me like that? This is what Lee Hae-rin (pseudonym), a ‘fake Korea University student,’ responded to in an email to graduate student A, a student of ‘Professor’s Mom.’

In fact, just saying “thank you” may not be enough. From being accepted to Korea University to entering Seoul National University’s Graduate School of Dentistry, they used ‘fake specifications’ created by ‘hidden helpers’. Also, if I hadn’t been ‘unlucky’, I would have become a dentist.

Last July, the professor’s mother, Lee Soo-hee (pseudonym), and her daughter, Hae-rin, were both found guilty in court. However, the story of Hae-rin, the protagonist of the entrance exam corruption scandal, is still ongoing. Despite the court’s guilty verdict, the decision to cancel Hae-rin’s admission to Korea University was not made. This fact was first confirmed by the truth investigation group Sherlock through school authorities.

The decision to cancel the admission of ‘fake Korea University student’ Lee Hae-rin (pseudonym) has not yet been made. ⓒNamgoong Hyeon

Lee Soo-hee, a professor at Sungkyunkwan University’s College of Pharmacy at the time, mobilized graduate students to help her daughter Hae-rin’s college entrance exam. Haerin received the ‘Outstanding Young Scholar Award’ for the ‘ghost-written’ report they made, and thanks to this, he was able to enter the Department of Biological Sciences at Korea University in 2014.

However, admission to Korea University was only the primary goal. Professor Lee’s ultimate goal is to ‘make a doctor.’. The main game(?) started after Haerin entered Korea University. In 2016, when Haerin was in her third year of college. From this point on, Haerin prepared to enter graduate school in medicine and dentistry.

Just like during college entrance, the professor’s mother came forward this time as well. It was decided to use the research project selected for the ‘2016 Undergraduate Research Program’ (hosted by the Ministry of Education and the Korea Foundation for the Advancement of Science and Creativity) to create Haerin’s ‘fake specifications’.

Professor Lee gave instructions to the graduate students in the pathophysiology lab he was supervising. Conduct ‘stress-inducing animal experiments’ and then write various reports. It was an experiment completely unrelated to the graduate students’ research project.

“All graduate students knew that this was an experiment for the defendant Hae-rin Lee. It is remembered that the preliminary experiment that took place around April 2016 was conducted by graduate student C, and the defendant Hae-rin Lee was not involved in any way. While the stress-inducing animal experiment was in progress, the defendant, Lee Hae-rin, We have only visited this laboratory twice and have never conducted any experiments together.. “During the first visit, we explained the laboratory and experiment tools, etc., and during the second visit, we only observed the experiment.” (statement of graduate student B in the first trial ruling)

Professor Lee even went ahead with the manipulation. As a result of the experiment, it was reported that the measured values did not conform to the hypothesis or that a clear difference that made the hypothesis meaningful was not obtained. Graduate students were instructed to manipulate the experimental results.. It has been a long time since I abandoned the bare minimum of conscience as a scholar.

“After the graduate students did their own experiments, they printed out the resulting graph and brought it to the professor. The professor then wrote random numbers directly on the table or drew a new graph shape and told them to draw the graph again like this. Since all experiments were divided between graduate students, we later confirmed that the data had been manipulated. In order to record such problems, we created a ‘summary of stress experiments’, which organizes the raw data held by graduate students on the left and the values changed under the professor’s instructions on the right. ‘I created a file.’ (statement of graduate student B in the first trial verdict)

Hae-rin was not even in Korea when she wrote the report. He had been staying in Vancouver, Canada as an exchange student since September 2016. I returned home only in January 2017.

Professor Soohee Lee (pseudonym) even mobilized graduate students to manipulate the experiment. Illustration by Oh Ji-won ⓒSherlock

A ghostwritten report that even went so far as to be manipulated. Without lifting a finger, Hae-rin submitted the ghostwritten report she had in hand to the Korea Foundation for the Advancement of Science and Creativity.

Professor Lee also received a total of 8 million won in support from the foundation. At this time, Professor Lee included the names of Cha Jun-mi (pseudonym) of Korea University and Seo-yoon Ahn (pseudonym) of Ewha Womans University as co-researchers. Like Hae-rin, they also did not actually conduct research. In particular, Seo-yoon Ahn received the ‘Outstanding Youth Scholar Award’ with Hae-rin during her high school days for a ‘ghost-written’ report.

Professor Lee’s graduate students also ghostwrote ‘research notes’ for them. To make it appear as if Hae-rin Lee, Jun-mi Cha, and Seo-yoon Ahn wrote it themselves, Three graduate students took turns writing research notes in different fonts.

In the end, Haerin won the ‘Outstanding Research Project Award’ from the Korea Foundation for the Advancement of Science and Creativity in December 2016.

Haerin also submitted a poster for the academic conference summarizing the results of the ‘stress-induced animal experiment’ to the Korean Society of Immunology. This was also written by graduate students.

However, Hae-rin did not attend the ‘poster presentation’ hosted by the Korean Society of Immunology. A poster presentation refers to a method of presenting research contents by attaching and posting them on multiple panels. Professor Lee’s graduate student students D and E gave a ‘proxy presentation’. According to the regulations, they were not registered with the society and could not even enter the society hall.

Nevertheless, the Korean Society of Immunology awarded the ‘Excellent Presentation Award’ to the poster in question in November 2016. In June 2017, he also won the ‘Excellent Poster Award’ at the poster contest hosted by Korea University.

The professor’s mother’s greed knew no bounds. This time it was a thesis. Professor Lee instructed his graduate students to write papers based on previous research results. The title of the paper is (Effect of melatonin on M2 macrophage polarization in a mouse model of stress).

January 2017, Haerin submitted a ‘ghost-written’ paper to the SCI (Science and Technology Citation Index)-level International Journal of Immunopharmacology.

An SCI-level paper related to stress-inducing animal experiments that was fraudulently named by Haerin.

Haerin was the sole author. The corresponding author is Professor F of the Department of Life Sciences at Korea University. The corresponding author is the person who writes the final version of the paper, approves it, and submits it to the academic journal. Professor F, the corresponding author, is an alumnus of the Sungkyunkwan University College of Pharmacy whose mother, Professor Soohee Lee, is an alumnus.

Professor F appeared before the investigative agency and testified as follows.

“There are no parts in the paper written by myself (Professor F himself). We are well aware of the fact that the defendant, Lee Hae-rin, conducts stress-inducing animal experiments and does not have the level, experience, or experience to write a thesis on this case. defendant I just assumed that Professor Lee Soo-hee would take care of many aspects for me..”

Hae-rin (pseudonym), who submitted an SCI-level thesis written by graduate students on her behalf as entrance exam material, was accepted to the Seoul National University Dental School in 2018. Data photo. ⓒYonhap News

Professor Lee meticulously took care of his daughter Hae-rin’s specifications in many ways. Professor Lee instructed graduate students to also take on Hae-rin’s volunteer work. Graduate student G volunteered to type Braille books for the visually impaired on behalf of Hae-rin. Professor Lee gave graduate student G 500,000 won as honorarium. Haerin submitted this result to a welfare center for the visually impaired and was recognized for her 54 hours of volunteer work.

It’s not just this. Professor Lee’s graduate students also had to edit Hae-rin’s self-introduction. It was the same as Hae-rin’s entrance exam to Korea University.

In the end, Haerin passed the regular admissions to Seoul National University’s Graduate School of Dentistry in 2018. At that time, among the successful students, only two, including Hae-rin, submitted SCI-level papers.

However, Hae-rin’s ‘ghostwriting life’ could not last forever. The Ministry of Education announced the results of a special investigation in March 2019 and requested an investigative agency to investigate. Prosecutors arrested and indicted Professor Lee on charges of obstruction of business and fraud in May 2019. Daughter Hae-rin was also handed over to trial.

The results of the first trial came out in July of this year. It has been about five years since the prosecution’s indictment. Seoul Central District Court Criminal Division 9 (Judge Kim Taek-hyung) Professor Soo-hee Lee was sentenced to 3 years and 6 months in prison, and his daughter Hae-rin Lee was sentenced to 10 months in prison and 2 years of probation.. The prosecution recently appealed against the first trial ruling.

In 2019, the Ministry of Education requested Sungkyunkwan University to severely discipline (dismissal) Professor Lee. Seoul National University’s Graduate School of Dentistry also decided to cancel Hae-rin’s admission around the same time. In the same year, the Korean Society of Immunology canceled the ‘Excellent Presentation Award’ previously awarded to Hae-rin.

Only Korea University has not yet revoked Lee Hae-rin’s admission. Even though other universities and academic societies already took action against these mother and daughter five years ago, and even though the court found them guilty. Korea University stated this in a written response to Sherlock last August.

“The cancellation/non-cancellation of admission for the person in question (Lee Hae-rin) has not been reviewed. “The matter will be handled in accordance with the school rules and regulations based on the court’s final decision.”

On the 15th, the reporter asked Korea University’s admissions office whether any changes had occurred since the written response last August. The admissions office representative responded, “Nothing has changed from the written response.” (Related article: )

Even after Sherlock’s coverage, Korea University has not taken any action regarding the cancellation of Lee Hae-rin’s (pseudonym) admission permit. ⓒNamgoonghyeon

The former professor’s mother and daughter are actually fighting back with a lawsuit. Former professor Lee filed an administrative lawsuit against the Minister of Education. The request is to cancel the decision to exclude the selection of academic support recipients. Daughter Hae-rin filed an administrative lawsuit against Seoul National University for cancellation of admission. Subsequently, an administrative lawsuit was initiated against the Korean Society of Immunology regarding the decision to cancel the award.

As a result of the first trial of each lawsuit, both mother and daughter lost.

Graduate student A, to whom Hae-rin said, “Thank you so much for always helping me like this,” how did he feel when he had to conduct a false experiment, manipulate the results of the experiment, and even write a false paper due to the ‘abuse of power’ by his former professor? Was it as heartwarming as Hae-rin’s greeting?

“From the beginning, defendant Professor Lee Soo-hee established a research plan and gave instructions, and thereafter, The entire process, including conducting experiments, writing research reports, and creating posters, was completed by graduate students.”(statement of graduate student A in the first trial ruling)

The reporter had a brief phone call with former professor Lee last September. When Professor Lee was introduced as a “reporter,” he said, “I don’t want to answer the phone right now,” and quickly hung up. Since then, as of October 21st, I have called 12 times, but former professor Lee did not answer.

The reporter also tried to contact former professor Lee at another number. On the 15th, we were asked via text message our position on the fact that Haerin’s admission to Korea University was not canceled. However, former professor Lee is not responding to text messages and phone calls.

We also contacted former professor Lee’s daughter, Hae-rin. On the 16th, I submitted my intention to be interviewed through the legal representative in charge of the appeals court regarding the entrance exam corruption case. But I couldn’t get any response. I also sent a message to Haerin’s personal social media account, but received no response. In the end, even when I went to the mother and daughter’s address on the 17th, I couldn’t get an answer.

Sherlock visited Professor F of the Department of Biological Sciences at Korea University, the corresponding author of the ghostwritten paper. On the 17th, I waited for nearly an hour in front of his office located at Korea University, but I was unable to meet him. The reporter attempted to receive a rebuttal by calling Professor F and sending text messages five times. But he is not responding at all.