Special Counsel Probes Police in Unification Church Cover-Up

The second comprehensive special counsel, investigating remaining cases of the third special counsels (insurrection, Kim Keon-hee, and deceased Marines), launched a criminal investigation into the National Police Agency on the 20th regarding suspicions of covering up the investigation into the Unification Church.

The comprehensive special counsel announced that they conducted raids on the National Police Agency, Gangwon Provincial Police Agency, and Chuncheon Police Station starting in the morning of that day. The special counsel sent prosecutors and investigators to these agencies to secure materials related to suspicions of covering up the investigation into the Unification Church’s overseas gambling case. A special counsel official explained, “The warrant noted that this was a period when the collusion between the Unification Church and former President Yoon Suk Yeol was solidifying.”

The suspicions of covering up the Unification Church investigation center on the fact that the Chuncheon Police Station, despite obtaining intelligence in June 2022 that Unification Church executives, including Chairman Han Hak-ja, gambled an amount worth 60 billion Korean won at a Las Vegas casino from 2008 to 2011, did not proceed with the investigation. Former Unification Church global headquarters director Yun Young-ho and others are suspected of destroying evidence after learning about the investigation in advance.

Earlier, the special counsel team investigating former first lady Kim Keon-hee raided the National Police Agency and others in July last year, suspecting that People Power Party lawmaker Kweon Seong-dong provided information related to the police investigation to the Unification Church. According to the special counsel, Representative Kweon called Yoon in October 2022 and said, “There’s a police tip-off that an investigation is underway into Unification Church executives, including Chairman Han Hak-ja, for alleged violations of the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act related to gambling charges,” and “Prepare as there could be a raid.”

The special counsel team investigating former first lady Kim Keon-hee indicted Representative Kweon, Chairman Han, and other Unification Church officials last year for exchanging investigation-related information, and the first trial court acknowledged these facts. However, in the trial regarding Yoon’s alleged destruction of evidence, the court dismissed the indictment, stating, “The scope of the investigation should not be indiscriminately expanded simply because there is significant public interest.”

The comprehensive special counsel is expected to begin a full-scale investigation into allegations of police misconduct based on the investigation materials from the special counsel team probing former first lady Kim Keon-hee and the contents secured from the police on that day.

Meanwhile, the comprehensive special counsel announced that they raided the Supreme Prosecutors' Office in Seocho-gu, Seoul, in the morning of that day regarding suspicions of covering up the investigation into Deutsch Motors. The special counsel reportedly secured prosecution messenger log records of individuals involved in the investigation line in 2024 and records created in the Korea Information System of Criminal Justice Services (KICS). In relation to this, the special counsel sent investigators to the Supreme Prosecutors' Office on the 10th to seize data from a PC used by former Prosecutor General Shim Woo-jung.