soulxtc
July 25th, 2006, 08:38 AM
SEOUL (Reuters) - Disgraced South Korean stem cell scientist Hwang Woo-suk said on Tuesday he spent part of private donations for his research in failed attempts to clone mammoths, extinct members of the elephant family.
Hwang, once celebrated as a national hero, was indicted in May on charges of fraud and embezzlement after prosecutors said he was the mastermind of a scheme to make it look like his team had produced stem cell lines through cloning human embryos.
At the third hearing in his trial in Seoul, Hwang said his team was given a 1 billion won ($1.05 million) grant from South Korea's powerful SK Group in 2005 and the money was supposed to be used for "peripheral activities related to the research".
When a prosecutor asked Hwang if the money landed in a personal account, Hwang did not deny the possibility but said: "I did have the money managed separately."
Hwang also said he used the names of seven junior members of his team to set up bank accounts. He controlled the money and used part of it to clone tigers, pay for a junior scientist's housing, overseas trips for team members and for a scientist's wedding.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyID=2006-07-25T125707Z_01_SEO9998_RTRUKOC_0_US-SCIENCE-KOREA.xml
Hwang, once celebrated as a national hero, was indicted in May on charges of fraud and embezzlement after prosecutors said he was the mastermind of a scheme to make it look like his team had produced stem cell lines through cloning human embryos.
At the third hearing in his trial in Seoul, Hwang said his team was given a 1 billion won ($1.05 million) grant from South Korea's powerful SK Group in 2005 and the money was supposed to be used for "peripheral activities related to the research".
When a prosecutor asked Hwang if the money landed in a personal account, Hwang did not deny the possibility but said: "I did have the money managed separately."
Hwang also said he used the names of seven junior members of his team to set up bank accounts. He controlled the money and used part of it to clone tigers, pay for a junior scientist's housing, overseas trips for team members and for a scientist's wedding.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyID=2006-07-25T125707Z_01_SEO9998_RTRUKOC_0_US-SCIENCE-KOREA.xml