South Korea’s Unification Church leader gets two years in prison for corruption

[SEOUL] A South Korean court on Monday (Aug 31) sentenced Han Hak Ja, the widow and successor of the Unification Church’s founder, to two years in prison, after convicting her of making illegal political donations and bribing a former first lady.

Known to her global followers as “True Mother”, Han, 83, has led the Unification Church since her husband, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, died in 2012 at age 92.

He was a self-proclaimed messiah who built his church — officially known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification — into an international movement preaching conservative family values.

Han’s sentencing followed her arrest last September amid a sweeping criminal investigation into former President Yoon Suk Yeol and his wife, Kim Keon Hee.

Yoon is serving a life sentence after a court ruled that his brief imposition of martial law in late 2024 constituted an act of insurrection. Kim has been sentenced to a total of 11 years in prison on multiple charges, including stock price manipulation, accepting bribes in exchange for lining up government jobs and giving political favours.

In its ruling on Monday, a three-judge panel at the Seoul Central District Court convicted Han of ​giving Kim luxury gifts worth 83 million won (about US$60,000) — including a diamond necklace and two Chanel bags — after Yoon’s election.

The bribes were funnelled through a senior Unification Church official, Yoon Young Ho, who is already serving an 18-month prison sentence for his involvement in the episode, prosecutors said.

On Monday, the court added six months to his sentence, citing additional violations of the law governing political donations.

The court also found Han guilty of using the same official to ​funnel US$72,000 in illegal political funds to Kweon Seong Dong, a conservative lawmaker, to aid Yoon’s 2022 ​election campaign. Kweon, a staunch ally of the former president, is currently serving a two-year prison sentence for his role in the scheme.

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Throughout the trial, Han denied all charges, arguing that the former church official had acted on his own to cultivate a relationship with Yoon’s government and to enhance his status within the church.

However, the judicial panel ​ruled on Monday that Han had embezzled church funds to secure political favours for the church’s global initiatives, including international conferences.​

She committed the crime “with the aim of leveraging the Unification Church’s financial power to treat the presidential election as a crucial opportunity for expanding its influence,” it said.

The Unification Church said that Han would appeal. But it also apologised for “causing great concern and disappointment to the public,” pledging “painful reform.”

In South Korea, the church’s activities drew little public attention in recent years — until criminal investigations began into the former president and his wife. The church is known for its mass weddings, involving thousands of couples, often from different countries and matched by the church.

In Japan, the 2022 assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, carried out by a man harbouring a grudge against the church, triggered accusations that the church’s branch there had manipulated members into donating to conservative politicians.

In March, a Tokyo court stripped its Japanese branch of tax-exempt status, forcing the liquidation of its assets. NYTIMES