Shin Jeong-ah

While applying to Dongguk University and the 2008 Gwangju Biennale, Shin said she earned BFA (1994) and MBA (1995) degrees at the University of Kansas, and a Ph.D. from Yale University in April 2005. Shin submitted to Dongguk what she called her dissertation, "Guillaume Apollinaire: Catalyst for primitivism, for Picabia and Duchamp," which was later found to have been submitted to the University of Virginia in 1981 by Greek scholar Ekaterini Samaltanou-Tsiakma. Shin's highest level of completed education was found to be high school.

On 27 March 2008, Dongguk University sued Yale University for at least $50 million, claiming Yale's actions had "severely tarnished" Dongguk University's reputation, sparked a criminal probe, cost employees their jobs, and led to a decline in donations, government grants and student applications. Yale called the error an administrative mistake and stated that the lawsuit was without merit.

Yale also noted that Dongguk failed to take action after the Korea College Art Association reported she had not received her doctorate from Yale. Dongguk fired Shin on July 20, 2007, "long after Shin's lies unraveled," court papers said. Yale also responded by saying that in addition to Dongguk's delayed reaction to the notice and own involvement in the scandal, “we think the jury will certainly consider the fact that the chairman of Dongguk’s board was convicted of soliciting and receiving an illegal government subsidy from Ms. Shin’s lover, who was an adviser to the Korean president.”

A South Korean court handed down a suspended one-year jail term to former presidential aide Byeon Yang-kyoon, with whom Shin was romantically linked. Shin and Byeon made headlines in 2007 after Byeon used his influence to get Shin hired by Dongguk University. He was forced to step down as an aide to then-President Roh Moo-hyun because of the scandal. Byeon was ordered to conduct 160 hours of community service for exercising his influence to provide state tax benefits to a Buddhist temple founded by a former Dongguk University official who helped hire Shin as a professor.

In the course of reporting on Shin's troubles, daily newspaper Munhwa Ilbo printed nude photos of Shin on 13 September 2007, claiming that they were evidence of her inappropriate relationship with Byeon Yang-kyoon. However, the KPEC rejected Munhwa Ilbo' s explanation, and ordered the daily to apologise, stating that it had damaged the dignity of all print media. Shin's lawyer stated that she planned to sue the newspaper for libel. Munhwa Ilbo published the apology on the front page of their 18 October 2007 edition; however, the apology itself attracted criticism from the Korea Sexual Violence Relief Center, and the KPEC indicated that they would review the matter again to decide whether the newspaper's statement actually constituted a proper apology. In the end, Shin filed suit over the photos and the newspaper's coverage of her, receiving W150 million (US$113,000) in compensation in December 2008.

Shin claimed that at age 23 in 1995, she was rescued after being trapped for eight hours under the rubble of the Sampoong Department Store collapse.

Shin Jeong-ah (born 28 April 1972) is a South Korean woman who lied about her academic background to become an assistant art professor at Dongguk University and chief curator at Sungkok Art Museum. She created an international scandal shortly after her appointment in July 2007 as joint artistic director of the 2008 Gwangju Biennale, when she was found to have fabricated her academic credentials that she had graduated from the University of Kansas and Yale University. Shin was sentenced to 18 months in prison, and Dongguk University unsuccessfully sued Yale University in U.S. court for at least $50 million in damages.