Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $200

Hwang Woo-suk, the South Korean scientist who claimed to have successfully cloned human embryos in 2004, was dealt a blow this week by an appeals court that upheld multiple fraud convictions against him, reports the Associated Press. In October, Hwang was sentenced to two years in prison on charges of embezzling $800,000 in research funds and illegally buying human eggs, the AP says. The sentence was suspended, provided that he remains out of trouble for three years. The Seoul High Court upheld all the convictions except one involving alleged embezzlement of $100,000 and reduced Hwang's sentence to 18 months in prison, suspended for two years. Hwang gained worldwide fame when he and other colleagues at the Seoul National University claimed in a Science paper in 2004 that they had cloned human embryos and extracted stem cells from them, the AP says. They also claimed that they had created human embryonic stem cells that were genetically matched to specific patients. A subsequent investigation by the university concluded, however, that the data was faked, the AP adds.