Photo : YONHAP News
A Seoul court has sentenced Yun Young-ho, a former head of the Unification Church’s world headquarters, to 14 months in prison for giving money and gifts to politicians.
The Seoul Central District Court issued the verdict on Wednesday for Yun, who was on trial for embezzlement, violating the Political Funds Act, destroying evidence and breaching the anti-graft law.
The court sentenced Yun to eight months for violating the political fund law and six months for embezzlement and violating the anti-graft law.
But it dismissed the charge of destroying evidence, saying allegations that Yun acquired information from a police investigation on overseas gambling by Unification Church leader Han Hak-ja and destroyed related evidence were beyond the scope of the special counsel probe in charge of Yun’s case.
In issuing its ruling, the court said Yun had given large sums of money and gifts to former first lady Kim Keon-hee and main opposition People Power Party Rep. Kweon Seong-dong with the Unification Church’s strong financial backing and in doing so embezzled church funds.
The court said those criminal acts alone, regardless of whether or not the favors asked in return for the money and gifts were actualized, had undermined the public’s trust in the fair implementation of policies.
​
The court’s verdict is lighter than the four years in prison sought by the special counsel team.