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9/29/2003
Questionable lucre.
One thing I didn't have space to get into -- in talking about why Tommy Thompson probably displayed poor judgement in entrusting the Moonies with almost half a million dollars for sex ed -- was the utter financial shadiness of the Unification Church. Moon has been accused of
- perpetrating a scheme to raise money for a PR firm, disguising the effort as a huge fundraising drive for sick children. This was one of many similar findings in Congressman Donald Fraser's investigation of 1978. (U.S. Government Printing Office, 34-674-O)
- laundering enormous amounts of cash, according to his daughter-in-law Nansook Hong in her respected expose In the Shadow of the Moons.
- purchasing a bank in Uruguay and siphoning most of its money, leaving the Banco de Credito an empty shell, according to widespread reports in the South American press. Earlier, a bank employees union, in 1996, leveled the astonishing claim that a parade of 4,200 Unificationist disciples deposited $80 million in cash, of questionable origin.
- scamming old ladies in Japan from 1987-98, according to the New York Times and Japanese lawyers who confronted the church's pyramid scheme in the 1990s. Almost 20,000 cases have been reported, totalling 74 billion yen (about 622 million U.S. dollars). One victim of the so-called Spiritual Sales, "Mrs. A," was talked into donating about $200,000 from her dead husband's life insurance policy, to purify the old man's lineage. Unification disciples told her:
- "Your husband is suffering in Hell and is seeking your help. Your daughters will suffer misfortune too if you do not donate money with the feeling that you want to sacrifice everything you own and offer it to heaven."
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