The prosecution on Tuesday indicted nine officials from a popular international middle school in Seoul on charges of fabricating grades to grant admission to certain students in return for receiving bribes from their parents.

The Seoul Northern District Prosecutors’ Office said it has indicted Kim Ha-joo, chairman of the board of Younghoon International Middle School, and the chief administrator identified only by his surname Yim. The two were indicted with physical detention, prosecutors said.

The two school officials are accused of ordering other faculty members to tamper with the grades of some students to give them unlawful admission into the school. The admission fraud also involved seven faculty members including a former vice principal. But they were indicted without physical detention, officials said. Six parents were also summarily indicted on bribery charges.

The nine officials are also accused of taking a total of 100 million won ($89,400) from parents in exchange for granting admission to their children between 2009 and 2013.

Additionally, chairman Kim was indicted of embezzling 1.7 billion won from the school’s funds for personal use. The 80-year-old chairman has partly admitted his wrongdoing, according to sources.

“This is the first bribery case discovered to be in exchange for granting admissions at international schools,” said prosecutor Choi Jong-won who led the two-month investigation.

The prosecution said the nine officials manipulated test scores of 28 students under the “special consideration” category. The officials also fabricated the grades of 839 students who applied to the school through the general category, they added.

To admit unqualified students, the officials rejected other applicants who had even higher scores. Particularly, in the special consideration category, they disqualified six out of eight applicants from social service institutions who had underprivileged family backgrounds. Of the six who failed to enter the school, five had passing grades, prosecutors said.

The school in northern Seoul came under fire after it was revealed earlier this year that Samsung Electronics vice chairman Lee Jay-yong’s son was admitted through a special spot reserved for students with unusual family circumstances.

The son of the divorced heir of country’s biggest conglomerate was accepted to the school last year under “special consideration,” a category for children from single-parent households.

Reports of the 13-year-old’s special admission quickly triggered widespread criticism as the process had been created to embrace disadvantaged children, not as a tool to accept possibly unqualified students from rich families.

In the face of heated criticism, the Samsung heir issued a public apology and his son left the school. The son is reportedly in Shanghai.

Prosecutors, however, did not reveal whether the officials allegedly fabricated admission scores to favor the Samsung vice chairman’s son.

“It is difficult to reveal names of people involved in the case unless they are indicted, as part of an effort to protect their human rights,” Choi said.

Civic groups have urged the investigator and education authorities to thoroughly investigate the allegations that the officials tampered with the scores of Lee’s son.

Younghoon is a special-purpose school built in 2009 under the government’s vision of nurturing global talent. Such schools have been under heavy criticism, however, for charging expensive tuition and becoming embroiled in admission fraud scandals.

In March, the Seoul municipal education office launched an inspection into Younghoon and another private school, Daewon International Middle School. After a month-long audit, the education office ordered the schools to punish faculty members involved in admissions corruption and referred them to the prosecution.

By Cho Chung-un (christory@heraldcorp.com)