Science / Hwang Woo suk Mixed Verdict Against Fake Korean 'Cloner' Scientist who lied about stem cells gets suspended sentence By Newser Editors and Wire Services Posted Oct 26, 2009 5:07 AM CDT Copied Hwang Woo-suk, who falsely claimed to have achieved major breakthroughs in stem cell research on human clones, avoided jail as the court suspended a two-year prison term for him. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon) The disgraced South Korean scientist who falsely claimed major breakthroughs in stem cell research in human clones was convicted of embezzlement and other charges, but was acquitted of fraud and received only a suspended sentence. Hwang Woo-suk was hailed as a national hero in 2004 for claiming in the journal Science that he had created the world's first cloned human embryos and had extracted stem cells from them. A university committee later found the report was fraudulent and the journal retracted his research. (More Hwang Woo suk stories.) Report an error