Harvard officials looking into Dolrudee’s case

Dr Padet Pulwittayakij, one of the four guarantors for Dr Dolrudee Jumlongras, revealed in a Facebook post on Thursday night that Dolrudee, who broke the scholarship conditions to work in Thailand and refused to pay back the scholarship money, is being investigated by the Ombuds Office, after email complaints against her were sent to the office.

“As many people have asked me, I knew from my source in the United States that there were requests that she be investigated by the Ombuds Office, which is the internal examination agency of Harvard Medical School,” Padet stated.

He also invited people, who sympathised with him, to submit a complaint via email about Dolrudee’s cheating to the office.

Padet also revealed that he has gathered the information from his side to send to Ombuds Office. “I’ll continue the lawsuit against her in the United States. I have received many help from Thai people there to find a good and cheap lawyer, so it will take some time. However, I insisted that if I win the case, I’ll take only the principle that I have paid, while I’ll donate all the interest,” he said.

According to its official website, the Ombuds Office has a duty to provide its visitors with a highly confidential and informal forum in which to help them to clarify their concerns, identify their goals and consider all of their options in managing or resolving their concerns. It deals with the issues that include work/learning environment and performance, fear of retaliation, professional misconduct, authorship, sexual harassment and discrimination.

In one of the emails to Ombuds Office, which was posted on Padet’s Facebook page, Melissa Brodrick, Ombudsperson of Harvard Medical School, stated that she had reported the issue to Harvard School of Dental Medicine without identifying the email sender.

Meanwhile, in the personal bankruptcy lawsuit case against Dolrudee, it was revealed that the attorney had already filed a lawsuit to the Bankruptcy Court on December 21, 2015 and the first court reading will be on March 14.

The indictment of the case stated that Dolrudee, the first defendant, has a Bt4.5 million debt with the first plaintiff, Mahidol University, and a Bt43 million debt with the second plaintiff, the Office of Higher Education Commission (OHEC), but the first defendant refused to pay her debt to both plaintiffs and she has no other properties to clear her debt.

Therefore, she can be sued as a bankrupt person.

Dolrudee was a former Mahidol University lecturer who received a conditional scholarship with OHEC to study at Harvard University. 

However, she violated the scholarship terms to work in Thailand and also refused to pay back her scholarship money.