… Local online auctioneer Ggi Auction said yesterday that Asia University, located in Gyeongsan, North Gyeongsang, was put up for sale on its site last Wednesday.
It marks the first time a college has been listed in an auction in Korea.
The appraised price of the school – which includes a 120,000-square-meter (1.3 million square feet) plot of land and 12,577 square meters of buildings and other facilities – was 11.064 billion won ($9.36 million).
But perhaps that was a bit too high for the online auction crowd: No one offered up a bid for the college at Wednesday’s auction, Ggi Auction said. The company plans to put the college up for sale again, this time during a live auction on Nov. 20 at Daegu District Court. Bidding will start at 7.745 billion won – 30 percent less than it was listed on Wednesday.
The college, founded in 2003, was battered by a series of corruption scandals involving the executives of its foundation, which eventually led to its closure. In 2005, its president and vice president were arrested together for receiving a combined 3.9 billion won in bribes in return for the promise of professorship. In another case, an executive was caught obtaining a loan from a bank under the name of a part-time lecturer. The amount of cumulative liabilities at the school is over 5.1 billion won, Ggi Auction said…
February 22nd, 2010 at 9:49AM
[…] extortion of private and public funds. Other examples of the-university-as-criminal-conspiracy are Asia University (currently available for purchase at seven billion won) and Panteion University in […]