Yes, actually.
There is a big difference with publishing a paper with no data a la Sokal vs publishing a paper with made up data.
If you are presenting data as true, it must be true. Editors and reviewers don't get to argue with your data--that's a cornerstone of the process. They can argue that you collected the wrong data, interpreted it incorrectly, etc. but the data you collected should be real.
If this professor really made up data, he absolutely should get fired.
I suspect that he probably didn't falsify data or the administration would simply wipe him out fairly unceremoniously. The fact that they are invoking a review board violation tells me that the case isn't that cut and dried.