Former foot cult executive gets 5 years

Japan Today/December 6, 2001

Tokyo -- The Tokyo District Court on Thursday sentenced a former executive of the Ho-no-Hana Sampogyo foot-reading cult to five years in jail on charges of defrauding 31 people of money between 1994 and 1997.

Lee Gang Chon, 55, is the top-ranking member of the cult after group founder and former leader Hogen Fukunaga. His sentence is the heaviest of the nine cult defendants who have been sentenced at local courts.