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Kumnan Church pastor jailed for two years
By Kim Se-jeong
Kim Hong-do
By Kim Se-jeong
Kim Hong-do, a pastor at Kumnan Methodist Church based in Seoul, was sentenced to two years’ jail on Thursday for attempted fraud.
He was taken to jail directly from court.
According to the Seoul Northern District Court, the church received $500,000 cash from an American missionary organization in 2000 to build a church in North Korea that could hold 1,000 people. The two sides agreed that construction would completed by 2008 and the organization would give an additional $9.8 million.
The plan eventually fell through, and the missionary group filed suit in 2011 demanding that Kim return the money. A U.S. court ordered the church to pay $14.3 million in indemnity.
The missionary group then asked the Korean court to order the church to pay the indemnity based on the American court ruling.
Kim then claimed a Korean law firm had lobbied the U.S. court. As evidence, he submitted documents he claimed the Korean law firm wrote. He said the U.S. court ruling was unfair.
But the Korean court did not accept Kim’s claim, based on emails between a church official and a staff member of the American missionary group.
“Kim tried to tarnish the fairness of the Korean and American judiciaries in order to avoid paying the huge amount,” the court said. “He gave false testimony as if he was a victim of an international fraud group, and made people at the missionary group spy for him.
“These were acts very unlike [those of] a religious leader.”