On July 18, the special prosecutor’s team investigating Kim Keon-hee (led by Special Prosecutor Min Joong-ki) launched a raid on the headquarters of the Unification Church in Seorak-myeon, Gapyeong, Gyeonggi Province. This comes just ten days after the team had raided the National Police Agency and other locations on suspicion that police had covered up intelligence received on July 8 about overseas gambling involving Han Hak-ja, president of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.
In preparation for protests from church members, the special prosecutor’s team requested police cooperation and had officers stationed near the headquarters.
Starting in the morning, the team executed search warrants at Cheon Jeong Gung, Han’s residence in Gapyeong, and affiliated facilities. Han is suspected of spending billions of won in Unification Church funds on slot machine gambling at casinos in Las Vegas, USA, between 2008 and 2011. Reports estimate that the Unification Church leadership, including Han, spent a total of about $42 million (approximately 58 billion KRW) on these overseas gambling trips during that three-year period.
The allegations first surfaced in June 2022, when an intelligence officer from the Foreign Affairs Division of Chuncheon Police Station obtained information about Han’s overseas gambling and reported it up the chain of command, but the investigation was allegedly suppressed. According to claims, Yoon Mo (48), former head of the Unification Church’s world headquarters, used his connection with Jeon Seong-bae (Geonjin Beopsa, 64), who is known to be close to former President Yoon Suk-yeol and his wife, to seek help from so-called “Yoon loyalists” (윤핵관, Yoon’s key political aides) to quash the investigation.
During an earlier prosecution investigation, it was revealed that an audio recording existed in which Yoon Mo reportedly said, “I was informed about the investigation by Yoon loyalists and reported it [to the church leadership].”
As part of the probe into the suspected cover-up, the special prosecutor’s team on July 8 raided the Criminal Affairs Bureau and Intelligence Bureau of the National Police Agency, as well as Chuncheon Police Station. Previously, the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office had been investigating Han, believing that she had used church funds for trips to U.S. casinos over more than a decade, but the case was later handed over to the special prosecutor’s team.
The special prosecutor’s team is also targeting former Unification Church world headquarters chief Yoon (Yoon Mo), who reportedly arranged and delivered gifts for First Lady Kim Keon-hee, including a Graff necklace worth around 60 million KRW (approximately $46,000), two Chanel luxury handbags worth 20.73 million KRW (approximately $16,000), and Cheonsu Ginseng Concentrate Tea.
From April to August 2022, Yoon is suspected of delivering these expensive gifts via Jeon Seong-bae (Geonjin Beopsa) alongside requests tied to the Unification Church’s long-held ambitions, including:
– securing official development assistance (ODA) for land on the Mekong River in Cambodia,
– lobbying to host the UN’s fifth headquarters,
– facilitating the Unification Church’s acquisition of the Korean news channel YTN, and
– invitations to the presidential inauguration.
Yoon reportedly testified during a previous prosecution investigation that “I got approval from President Han” and “It was at President Han’s direction,” referring to Han Hak-ja, the Unification Church leader.
Before the case was transferred to the special prosecutor, the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office confirmed that Jeon, who received the gifts from Yoon, passed them on to Yoo, a former administrative officer at the presidential office’s Second Lady’s Office, who had previously worked at Kim Keon-hee’s company, Cobana Contents.
Prosecutors also investigated Yoo’s actions exchanging the Chanel handbags received in April and July 2022 for other handbags and shoes by paying extra fees. The person who paid the additional cost with a credit card was Ms. Cho (55), the wife of the CEO of 21gram, a company under suspicion for receiving preferential treatment in official residence construction contracts.
The special prosecutor’s team suspects that this extra payment may have been a bribe aimed at securing construction favors for the official residence, and they have booked Cho and her husband on charges of violating the Anti-Graft Act (Improper Solicitation and Graft Act).
The special prosecutor’s team is expected to focus its investigative resources on summoning the suspects and uncovering the full scope of the allegations based on materials obtained during the latest raid.
P.S. The investigation into Yoon Suk-Yoel’s insurrection and corruption is expanding into a Unification Church scandal. Several prominent pro-Yoon PPP lawmakers’ offices are being raided too. It seems whole Pro-Yoon faction has been implicated with Unification Church.
Posted by Freewhale98