[Yoo Byung-eun] The property of the late chairman Yoo Byung-eun is worth 240 billion Korean Won?

1. What has been falsely reported? 

Multiple media outlets published false reports with claims related to the properties of the late chairman Yoo Byung-eun such as, “the property of the late chairman Yoo Byung-eun is worth 240 billion Korean Won.” Most of such reports have been deleted or corresponding correction reports have been published according to the order by the Press Arbitration Commission, or by the negotiation between respective agencies. The following are examples of such false reports:

 

 

 

 

2. False reports vs. the Truth

 

The private property that belongs to the family of the late chairman Yoo Byung-eun is worth 240 billion Korean Won. The Agricultural Cooperative is the property of the late chairman Yoo Byung-eun under borrowed names.

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A large portion of the assets valued at 240 billion Korean Won which is reported to belong to the family of the late chairman Yoo Byung-eun, in fact belongs to the Agricultural Cooperative composed of the members of the Korean Evangelical Baptist Church. And this is not the property of the late chairman Yoo Byung-eun under borrowed names. Chairman Yoo never owned any property under borrowed names, and the Agricultural Cooperative was established with private funds or collected funds from like-minded members of the Korean Evangelical Baptist Church for the cultivation of organic crops.

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Related Articles

 

<Media Today June 23, 2015>

http://www.amn.kr/sub_read.html?uid=20763

“There was heavy interference from the National Intelligence Services (NIS) even since the import of the Sewol Ferry" [Interview] Lee Tae-jong, the former spokesperson of the Salvation Group says, “this is fiction written by the media and the prosecutors - Yoo Byung-eun was not the de facto owner of the Chonghaejin Marine Co.”

Q: The prosecutor’s office claimed that the properties under borrowed names of the late chairman Yoo Byung-eun is worth 240 billion Korean Won. Is this correct?

 

A: This claim is unrealistic. Media agencies and the prosecutors argue that the funds came from exploiting the members of the Salvation Group. Let us assume that the funds from the exploitation were collected at 10 billion Korean Won a year. To collect 240 billion Korean Won, it would take 24 years. How many members of the Salvation Group are there? There was the bankruptcy of the Semo Corporation in 1997, and on top of that, 10 billion Korean Won would have to be collected every year for 24 years and 100% of such funds would have had to be given only to the late chairman Yoo. This is impossible if you think with common sense.

Regarding the ownership as well, we believe this property belongs to us as a collective body, and not to the late chairman Yoo as an individual. Besides, there is not any legal evidence to support this claim that it belonged to him.

There is one legal violation in reality, however; it is the violation of the ‘Real Name Financial Transactions Act’ .

We needed land to pursue organic farming, but churches cannot own farmland. Therefore someone’s name had to be used. On several occasions, the name of the late chairman Yoo or his family members were used. But we wanted to correct this situation, therefore we selected several representatives and established the Agricultural Cooperative with collected funds. I do not understand why they keep insisting that this is an individual’s property under borrowed names.

 

 

 

4. Related Correction and Refutive reports

 

<Korea Daily - June 21, 2017>

https://www.hankookilbo.com/News/Read/201706211544146973

[Stories In] “Yoo Byung-eun’s assets are not worth 101.3 billion Korean Won”

[Stories In] “Yoo Byung-eun’s assets are not worth 101.3 billion Korean Won” 

Korea Daily reported on April 19th under the title “US Court says, the financial obligation of Yoo Byung-eun, duty of his children to pay”. The article said that the properties of the former chairman of Semo Group Yoo Byung-eun, which has been concealed for over a decade, was finally discovered through the investigation by the Prosecutor's Office after the Sewol Ferry incident. It also mentioned that the assets valued at 101.3 billion Korean Won, have been illegally accumulated through purchasing real estate in the United States under other people’s names, such as of his children, away from the surveillance of the Korean Government.

The article was written based on the press release by the Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation.

Regarding such accusations, the representative of the late Chairman Yoo’s family clarified that “the portion of his personal assets unaccounted during the Debt Arbitration in 2009 due to the circumstance that the computer network was being consolidated, is 21 million Koren Won, which mostly came from money that was accumulated from the National Pension. What is being claimed as his personal wealth at the value of 101.3 billion Korean Won is mostly the common property owned by the members of the Korean Evangelical Baptist Church. This report follows the correction order by the Press Arbitration Commission.

 

 

<Journal of Current Affairs July 27, 2015>

http://www.sisapress.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=65002

The correction and refutive report (Part 2) on the Korean Evangelical Baptist Church (Salvation Group) and the late Chairman Yoo Byung-eun.

11. Regarding the news coverage on the late Chairman Yoo Byung-eun’s assets and loans:

It has been clarified that the majority of the reported assets of the late chairman Yoo Byung-eun and his family valued at 240 billion Korean won, is the property of the Agricultural Cooperation composed of members of the Korean Evangelical Baptist Church. And the real estate in the United States near Palm Springs is unrelated to the late Chairman Yoo. In addition, the court has sentenced that the 240 apartment units near Geumsuwon cannot be considered as Mr. Yoo’s property under borrowed names. It also has been clarified that Mr. Yoo has not utilized the particular credit union to store his private capital, nor has taken out a loan of approximately 100 million Korean Won from a certain financial institution in an abnormal manner.

 

 

<Culture Daily - December 26, 2014>

http://www.munhwa.com/news/view.html?no=2014122601071421000001

The correction and refutive report on the Korean Evangelical Baptist Church (Salvation Group) and the late Chairman Yoo Byung-eun.

The Prosecutor’s Office has declared at the announcement of the result of the investigation on the Sewol Ferry incident, that there is no factual evidence to support claims that the late chairman Yoo lobbied politicians or the financial services sector; or the receivership process of the Semo Corporation proceeded in unlawful manners. Jeon Yang-ja never married the brother-in-law of the late Chairman Yoo. We confirmed that the late Chairman Yoo separated with the ‘Missionary Team’ under an amicable agreement at the end of his employment at the Far East Broadcasting Station. The ‘Missionary Team’ was the main operating body of the station at the time. The Korean Evangelical Baptist Church notified us that no factual evidence has been found to support the following claims: the church members threatened court witnesses; the late Chairman Yoo was the religious leader; the late Chairman Yoo forced the church members and/or employees to purchase his photographs. Contrary to the claims that there is an underlying meaning to his pseudonym ‘Ahae’, it simply means ‘a child’ in the ancient Korean language. The company name “Semo” simply means a triangle, and “Cheonhaeji” means “sky, ocean & land”. Yoo Hyuk-kee, Kim Pil-bae and Kim Hye-kyung left South Korea before the Sewol ferry incident (April 16th). The church member Yang never embezzled a few hundred million Korean Won of church funds. Chairman Yoo was not a de facto owner of the Cheonhaeji Marine Co. as he did not own any shares. He did not own 200 apartment units near Geumsuwon under borrowed names. Ms. Shin was never Chairman Yoo’s secretary.

 

 

 

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