Cho accused of embezzling money from Yoido church

Pastor Cho Yong-gi of the Yoido Full Gospel Church has been charged with embezzling money from the church.

Twenty-nine elders of Korea’s biggest church filed a charge on Monday with the Seoul Central Prosecutors’ Office against their senior pastor Cho and his son Hee-jun, former chairman of daily newspaper Kookmin Ilbo, for misappropriating funds.

Church elders claim that Cho gave around 20 billion won ($18 million) of the church’s money to his son to invest in stocks.

“This is only the tip of the iceberg. We have more evidence that he has misused the church money. We’ll file a suit for another case,” one of the elders told reporters.

Some of the elders have already filed a complaint with the prosecution in an attempt to keep the pastor’s family from dominating the church’s decision-making positions.

The leadership dispute dates back to 2008, when Cho appointed Lee Young-hoon as his successor and promised to step down from all positions. However, he and his family have not loosened their grip on the church until recently, still controlling the budget and management of the church as well as dozens of its affiliates.

By Oh Kyu-wook (596story@heraldcorp.com)