My mother is visiting and she often has an interesting or story or two that I hadn't heard before.

She was an attorney in the early 1980s. There was a Korean janitor who worked in a university in Seoul, and he managed to steal a copy of the university seal. This allowed him to make very convincing forgery diplomas, so he made himself a fake medical degree.

He then got a fellowship in the US, married an American woman, and was working at a US university hospital. He did various additional forgeries, like getting a medical license from a retired doctor and altering it for himself, so he had an office filled with all sorts of fake diplomas, licenses, awards, etc. He had a private practice where he preyed on the Korean immigrant population in the city with his fake medical skills.

Anyway he was eventually caught upon further scrutiny of his documents. The judge was lenient on him and gave him a prison sentence of 364 days, which is 1 day less than a year which is the threshold for crimes that often get people deported.

Seems like a crazy story to me and could be a movie.

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Paper Doctor

Papa Doc

Indeed, crazy story.

This is scary! I'm wondering how he was able to fake and practice such profession in the United States without being noticed quickly.

I find your stories interesting, wish I could follow you again.

Crazy story. Seems like an incredibly lenient sentence.

This reminds me of that movie “Catch Me If You Can” (2002) by Spielberg starring Leonardo DiCaprio & Tom Hanks

This.

These kind of things were possible in the 1980s … before the digital age…

In some countries they still are - not for much longer though.

A movie or a book

> Seems like a crazy story to me and could be a movie.

Great premise for a plot!

People are really crazy and fooled. You could write us a novel lyn. What do you say? 🤔

Sounds like the FED making fake dollars 55 years ago when it became a fiat currency, but they have not get a single day of prison yet.

Doctor Parasite

Fiat doctor.

No idea why, but reading this I had a mental image of Dentacoin, and I half expected you to say he was behind something similar 😂

If he manages to convince thousands of patients that he's a doctor worth attending, how did he not manage to achieve higher goals than being a janitor before?

you mean like going to medical school?

also, being a janitor can be not bad if you have a simple life and few responsibilities. I’m thinking of the movie “Perfect Days” about a janitor in Japan.

U feel bad for the people who went to him for medical treatment, but I kind of impressed by his ingenuity

that is crazy!

He was very lucky that no one got hurt.

do you know that for a fact? Cuz yeah … that’s the first question that pops into mind…

Maybe it’s just a story.

I’m just wondering … cuz it sounds like he was pretending to be a ‘primary care provider’, and sometimes you’d need to make referrals.

It is surprising the amount of lies that people are capable of believing.

Spent years teaching in higher education in South Korea and this article echoes the sentiments there.

https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/opinion/20250517/selective-morality-of-plagiarism-koreas-cancel-culture-masquerading-as-justice

I don’t know how I feel about my initial response to this, but having travelled widely I’m continually impressed (and driven crazy) by how many people in many countries with little upward mobility become masters at scamming.

Like, the better ones think layers of scam more than the ones with no initiative.

Having experienced that on even a touristy level, it opened my eyes way wide to what must be happening “above my paygrade”. And so I don’t view a Korean janitor creating a fake life in America with anything more than maybe a fist-bump of respect, depending on the quality of the person.

Thx for sharing! I love hearing this stuff.

But…the judge put the safety of the public above an emotive view of the defendant

I'd watch that movie.