Court Upholds Whimun High School's Autonomous Private School Status Despite Accounting Fraud... Ruling Reversed

Seoul Whimoon High School, which lost its autonomous private high school (Autonomous Private High School, JaSaGo) status due to accounting fraud, has won the appeal and will maintain its JaSaGo status.

Seoul Central District Court, Seocho-gu, Seoul. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

The Seoul High Court Administrative Division 11-1 (Presiding Judges Choi Suhwan, Yoon Jonggu, Kim Woosu) overturned the first-instance ruling that ruled against the plaintiff in the appeal trial on the 25th, and ruled in favor of the plaintiff in the lawsuit filed by the Whimoon Foundation against the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education to cancel the designation cancellation of the JaSaGo status.

The court stated, “While the first trial’s judgment on the defendant’s objective grounds for the disposition is acceptable, the Enforcement Decree of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which is the basis for the disposition, exceeds the limits of delegated legislation and cannot be recognized as effective.”

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education discovered through an audit in 2018 that the 8th honorary chairman of Whimoon High School and the foundation’s secretariat embezzled 3.825 billion KRW by renting the school gymnasium and other facilities to a church as a worship place from 2011 to 2017, receiving school development donations in addition to usage fees. Prosecutors’ investigation revealed that the honorary chairman and secretariat embezzled about 5.2 billion KRW in total from 2008, before Whimoon High School was designated as a JaSaGo.

Accordingly, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education held the “Autonomous School Designation and Operation Committee” in 2020 and decided to cancel Whimoon High School’s JaSaGo designation, which the Ministry of Education also agreed to. In response, Whimoon High School filed a lawsuit opposing the decisions of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education and the Ministry of Education.

The first trial ruled in favor of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, stating, “The amount embezzled recognized as grounds for the disposition alone reaches 3.075 billion KRW, and the amount of breach of trust is about 20 million KRW,” adding, “Long-term embezzlement and breach of trust occurred, and the plaintiff failed to fulfill its social responsibility as an educational institution.”