Despite his research being exposed as fraudulent and unethical almost four years ago, the career of South Korean cloner Woo Suk Hwang has thrived. He has established a research institute, laid claim to a set of human-cloning patents, received a scientific excellence award, published a handful of papers and entered into a collaboration with a powerful provincial government. Now Hwang faces his biggest hurdle yet: the possibility of jail time. As Nature went to press, a verdict was expected on charges that he knowingly used faked research results to apply for grants, embezzled as much as 2.8 billion Korean won (US$2.4 million), and purchased human eggs in violation of the country's bioethics law.
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