South Korean prosecutors today (May 12) officially charged researcher Hwang Woo-suk with fraud and embezzlement in the stem cell research scandal.
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Mr. Hwang has been officially charged with fraud and embezzlement – Photo: AP |
He is also accused of violating medical ethics laws. Five other scientists have also been formally charged alongside him.
The research project, which was claimed to be groundbreaking and involved creating a line of stem cells from cloned human embryos, was discovered to be fabricated.
Senior prosecutor Lee In-Kyu stated that Mr. Hwang has not yet been arrested.
At the end of last year, Mr. Hwang received 41.7 billion won (approximately 42.2 million USD) from the government budget and 4.3 billion won (around 4.35 million USD) from private funds for his research.
However, the audit committee did not account for 2.5 billion won (about 2.6 million USD) of this amount.
Stem Cell Scandal Timeline:
February 2004: Mr. Hwang’s research team claimed to have created 30 cloned human embryos and extracted stem cells.
May 2005: The team announced that they had developed stem cell lines from skin cells of 11 individuals.
November 2005: Mr. Hwang apologized to the public for using eggs from team members for research.
December 15, 2005: A colleague in the team accused the stem cell research of being fraudulent.
December 23, 2005: The scientific investigation committee found that the research results published in May 2005 were fabricated.
January 10, 2006: The investigative team discovered that the 2004 research was also fabricated.
May 12, 2006: Prosecutors formally charged Mr. Hwang with fraud and embezzlement.
KIM NHUNG
