Odd News

Fake music degrees hit sour note in S.Korea

(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-03-20 14:32

Some South Korean musicians may be singing the blues after prosecutors said they had broken up a crime ring selling bogus music diplomas from Russia, which helped many land university jobs and seats in orchestras.

A 51-year-old South Korean woman, identified by her family name Do, was arrested at the weekend on suspicion of working with a dean of a Russian music college to provide fake master's degrees to about 120 South Koreans, Seoul prosecutors said.

They said that Do operated a music academy in Seoul which helped students obtain a fake degree from a school in the eastern Russian port city of Vladivostok.

Five students have been indicted for obtaining false degrees and prosecutors said they were considering action against the others.

They said the typical degree-seekers paid about 20 million won ($20,600) in tuition, perhaps spent a few days in Russia and eventually obtained a master's degree without doing any academic work.

"The suspects could not read their own diplomas because they were written in Russian," prosecutor Choi Chang-suk said.

Officials at the Russian embassy in Seoul were not immediately available for comment, but Seoul prosecutors have requested help from Russian authorities in the investigation.