The Korea Herald

피터빈트

Tablo’s diploma confirmed

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Published : Oct. 8, 2010 - 16:32

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Police said they have confirmed Tablo’s diploma at Stanford University, announcing the interim results of the probe into allegations of Tablo-bashing internet users who claimed the K-pop star forged his diploma at Stanford.

The cyber crime team of Seocho Police Station said it has checked Tablo’s certificate and transcript from Stanford and confirmed that he earned a bachelor of arts and master’s degree at the prestigious U.S. university.

In late August, Tablo filed a lawsuit against 22 members of Naver online community “We urge Tablo to tell the truth,” also known as “Tajinyo” in Korean, for libel.

Among them is the caf manager whose user ID is “whatbecomes,” who first raised suspicion about Tablo and initiated the allegations.
Tablo, a member of Korean hip-hop group Epik High. (Park Hyun-koo/The Korea Herald) Tablo, a member of Korean hip-hop group Epik High. (Park Hyun-koo/The Korea Herald)

The police said they will arrest “whatbecomes” with the cooperation of international police. The caf manager is a 57-year-old U.S. citizen whose surname is identified as Kim, the police said. During the investigation, police also found out that Kim had stolen his friend’s ID by using the friend’s social security number.

Upon the announcement of the investigation results, Tablo said he does not know what to do next.

“It’s been a while since I didn’t do music. I haven’t thought about what to do,” Tablo was quoted by a local daily as saying.

“I don’t have plans. I don’t have enough energy to do music right now,” he said.

Earlier, Korean Web surfers and Twitter users urged online Tablo attackers to publicly apologize to him, after MBC aired a special program on Oct. 1 on the singer-songwriter, visiting Stanford University to verify his diploma there.

On the program, Tablo met with Stanford Registrar Tom Black to print out his graduation certificate and transcript directly from the school’s computer system and compared them to those the singer had revealed through a local daily earlier in June. The two were identical.

MBC was allowed by a Seoul court Friday, to go ahead with the airing of “Tablo Goes to Stanford,” after three members of an internet community caf on portal Naver, “World Where the Common Sense is the Truth,” a.k.a “Sangjinse” in Korean, filed a court injunction against the program’s airing on Oct. 1, claiming the content of the program could prejudice an investigation into Tablo over his alleged diploma forgery.

The court dismissed the case hours before the show’s scheduled airing, ruling that the petitioners lacked evidence to back up their claims that the program could affect the ongoing probe by the prosecution.

By Kim Yoon-mi (yoonmi@heraldcorp.com)