The lawmaker and former People Power Party (PPP) National Assembly floor leader Kweon Seong-dong has denied involvement in a high-profile gambling and corruption case involving top politicians and the head of the Unification Church.
Investigators think that the church’s leader Han Hak-ja (also known as Hak Ja Han Moon), lost millions of USD during several trips to Las Vegas.
Han is the widow of church founder Sun Myung-moon. Prosecutors have raided the church’s headquarters as part of the probe. A court has also ordered Han not to leave the country.
However, leaked recordings appear to show that politicians warned church officials about a forthcoming investigation.
A special prosecution team is investigating allegations that church officials enlisted the help of aides of former President Yoon Suk-yeol.
These aides, prosecution officials think, helped scupper a police investigation into Han’s alleged gambling trips in 2022 and 2023.
Yoon won office as the PPP’s candidate in 2022. He was impeached earlier this year. Both he and his wife, Former First Lady Kim Keon-hee, are currently the subject of a major corruption investigation.
Unification Church: Gambling Probe Continues
Prosecutors have questioned Kweon on suspicions that he took 100 million won ($72,000) from a former Unification Church official in 2022. They also think Han personally gave Kweon a shopping bag full of cash.
The special prosecution unit is also investigating allegations that the same ex-Unification Church official and a close Kim associate helped mobilize Unification Church members to support Kweon’s 2023 bid for the PPP leadership.
Kweon has denied wrongdoing, but promised he will cooperate with the investigation and waive his legal right to parliamentary immunity.
The lawmaker wrote on Facebook on August 31 that the probe was “unjust, untrue, and politically motivated.”
He wrote: “I have never provided any investigative information to the Unification Church or accepted any bribe. The special prosecutor’s office’s continuous stream of baseless claims and speculative reports is blatantly false. I cannot help but suspect political motives.”
Lawmaker Waives Immunity
Kweon promised to prove his innocence in court. The lawmaker has waived his immunity before. In 2018, he cooperated with an investigation into allegations about improper hiring policies at the casino operator Kangwon Land.
Prosecutors believe several other church officials accompanied Han on several visits to Las Vegas, dating back to 2011. They think that Han’s most recent Vegas trip was as recent as January this year.
Officials say they have seen data from the MGM Resorts International-operated M Life Players Club casino rewards program.
This data, media reports in South Korea claim, provides extensive details of Han’s gambling history.
They reportedly show that she was an avid slot machine player and incurred net losses of about $40,000.
Unification Church Denies Han Allegations
The South Korean news agency Yonhap reported that the prosecution also suspects Kweon may have helped the church navigate a number of other issues in exchange for organized support at elections.
The Unification Church denies all allegations. It claims that Han only visited Las Vegas to meet with US-based church officials. It noted that its Western US offices are based in Las Vegas.
In August, Kangwon Land vowed to fight back against illegal casino operators who use deepfake footage of its officials and the soccer star Son Heung-min to promote bogus gambling sites.
The operator says that it is working with the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency’s Cyber Investigation Unit as it hunts for the fake website creators.
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