http://today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyID=2006-07-25T125707Z_01_SEO9998_RTRUKOC_0_US-SCIENCE-KOREA.xml&src=072506_0941_ARTICLE_PROMO_also_on_reutersSEOUL (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.
(...)
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.
"We secured mammoth tissues from glaciers and tried cloning three times, but failed," Hwang said.
He also admitted to often withdrawing tens of thousands of dollars in cash at different bank branches and carrying it in suitcases that contained his surgical gowns because "some of it had to go to uses of a highly classified nature," he said.
(((Suppose Hwang had succeeded, and there were baby South Korean cloned mammoths trumpeting in a zoo right now. Don't you think the authorities woulda kinda overlooked the heaps of hot cash in the valises?)))
