Mahidol University and the Office of the Higher Education Commission (Ohec) plan to file a lawsuit against the alleged debt-skipping Harvard dentist Dr Dolrudee Jumlongras and force her into bankruptcy to help her four guarantors who were left to pay off her scholarship debt.
Banchong Mahaisavariya, vice-president of Mahidol University, said at a press conference yesterday that the university and Ohec are discussing filing a civil lawsuit that will declare Dr Dolrudee bankrupt before the 10-year statute of limitations on expires on Feb. 14.
Thai-born Dr Dolrudee was working as a lecturer at the Faculty of Dentistry of Mahidol University when she was granted a scholarship by Mahidol in 1993 to study at Harvard University.
According to a Mahidol University representative, a condition of the scholarship stated that after graduating from the US university, Dr Dolrudee was required to return to Thailand and resume her post at Mahidol for a period that was three times the length of her studies.
But she allegedly broke the scholarship contract when she obtained a job at Harvard and resigned from Mahidol, leaving her four guarantors facing her scholarship debt, which had accumulated to THB30 million, triple the amount of her tuition with a fine as she had refused to return.
However, the four guarantors negotiated with Mahidol University in court and recently paid about THB8 million in total for Dr Dolrudee’s debt.
“For the case of the debt-skipping lecturer, she cannot just pay her guarantors back the THB8 million. That’s not the end of it,” said Banchong at the press conference.
“She skipped out on the scholarship and must pay THB30 million [back to the university]. She cannot just zigzag and pay THB8 million. That doesn’t get her out of the case,” he said.
The university also wrote to Harvard, but the prestigious institute refused to intervene.
“We also wrote to Harvard asking them to investigate the issue and consider appropriate action, but they just replied that they are treating this case as a private matter,” he added as quoted by Bangkok Post.
The vice president also expressed disappointment over such behavior, adding that it would affect future candidates in obtaining a scholarship.
The scandal went viral on social media after one of her guarantors, Dr Padej Poonwithayakij, a dentist who knew Dr Dolrudee through a lecturer at Mahidol University, took to Facebook to tell his story and posted a receipt which showed him paying his share of the debt, THB2.2 million, to Mahidol last month.
The story was then picked up by local media as Thai netizens dug deep into the life of Dr Dolrudee in the States, posting photos of what is claimed to be her luxurious home and shaming her publicly on Facebook.
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