The Betrayal of Sun Myung Moon - Part II: A Billion-Dollar Heist Breaks His Heart

The Unificationist Life of Self-Sacrifice Most Unificationists joined the Unification Church to study the teachings of Sun Myung Moon and to practice and spread them in order to create a world of love and goodness under God, made up of loving families. For most members, this endeavor was consistent with Biblical scriptures and marked a new beginning of an age-old Divine Providence that they felt blessed to be a part of.

Reverend Moon’s core teaching was that members should become people of love, a status they could achieve through a life of self-sacrifice, which he summarized in this way:

“True love is to give and give and give; to forget that you have given, and give again.”

It is with this spirit of self-sacrifice that members gave up their family ties, their education, their careers and their jobs, so as to dedicate their lives to advancing the providence. Pioneers went out with next to nothing to their name, trusting in the help of Heaven to accomplish their missions, which usually meant finding new members for the Church. These activities focused initially on key providential countries, especially Korea, Japan and America, then Europe and several other countries, and then, in 1975, missionaries (by and large, one each from Japan, America and Germany) were sent to 120 countries. Again, they took little with them other than basic personal possessions, and they had to begin the work of building national movements with only a tiny monthly stipend to sustain them, and that only for an initial period.

While all this evangelism was proceeding around the world, another group of Unificationists was engaged in generating income to support the development of the movement. No less sacrificial, they typically worked in the streets for long hours, selling flowers, scented candles and other items, all without any personal benefit beyond food and board and perhaps a small amount of personal money to purchase necessities.

These funds were used for several purposes, but all under the philosophy of self-sacrifice, albeit on the institutional level. In other words, Rev. Moon’s ‘giving’ motto applied to the Church itself, requiring it to sacrifice its own institutional interests for the benefit of the whole world. These sacrifices meant that very little was spent on Church buildings or other infrastructure, while millions of dollars, and then tens and hundreds of millions of dollars were spent on international conferences, educational institutions, book publishing and media companies designed to spread truth to all people everywhere.

At the same time, money donated by members was used to establish companies in everything from retail products to machine tool manufacture, ship building, fishing and fish processing to sushi restaurants, hotels and resorts. These companies were intended to provide jobs for

members and to elevate income generation for the Church to a more professional and sustainable level.

Unification Church International By far the most successful country in terms of income generation was Japan, where members worked incredibly hard to support the providence, under direct instructions from Rev. Moon. So sacrificial were many members that they literally went bankrupt in order to meet monthly quotas, which at the peak of this activity were in the neighborhood of $100 million a month to support the worldwide movement.

Yet, although Japan was identified as an Eve nation to Korea’s Adam, Rev. Moon believed America to be a new Israel, and therefore the key to advancing the global providence (even though it served as an archangel to Japan and Korea). It was here, then, that the vast bulk of Unification money was spent, on everything from buildings and businesses to media companies and universities.

To manage these money flows, in 1977 a non-profit company with charitable purposes was established by Bo Hi Pak in Washington, DC, called Unification Church International (UCI). This would become the parent company of a host of subsidiaries and projects, including, for example, One Up Enterprises, True World Holdings and News World Communications, which owned United Press International (UPI), The Washington Times and other titles, in the US and abroad. Its function was to serve as a trust that the Church would fund in order to carry out providential projects.

In addition to broad purposes “to support educational, cultural and religious purposes,” the Articles of Incorporation include this: “To promote and support the understanding and teaching of the theology and principles of the Unification Church.”

The trust Rev. Moon vested in UCI was reflected in the first five directors (board members) he appointed in the Ninth Article, including his wife and the senior-most Church members at the time: Hak Ja Han, Bo Hi Pak, Won Pok Choi, David S.C. Kim and Won Pil Kim. That same article ends with the following words:

The Directors recognize and acknowledge that the Reverend Sung Myung Moon has provided the inspiration and spiritual leadership for the founding of the Corporation [UCI] and is the spiritual leader of the international Unification Church movement.1

In a front page article in its Sunday edition, published on September 16, 1984, The Washington Post estimated that in the previous nine years over $800 million had been transferred from Japan to the United States through the UCI route, including some $150 million to cover losses suffered by The Washington Times in its first couple of years of operation (it was founded in 1982). In 1991 Rev. Moon said he had spent $1 billion on The Washington Times alone, which continued to bleed tens of millions of dollars a year. A decade later the total spent on the paper and related publications in the US had reached to something like $2 billion.

Somewhat amazingly, Rev. Moon did not include himself as an owner of UCI or any of the entities established under it. He put his trust in his children and members, replacing them as leaders when they seemed to be performing poorly or when they were needed elsewhere. So it was with UCI, which was first run by Bo Hi Pak, followed by Dong Moon Joo, from 1992 to 2005, at which time Chung Hwan Kwak became chairman and president, positions then transferred to Hyun Jin Preston Moon in 2006, all at Rev. Moon’s behest. (In this document we will simply refer to Hyun Jin Moon as Preston Moon, since he chose to use this English name.)

Thus the ultimate decision-making role for Rev. Moon was not written into the articles or bylaws of these entities, although in the case of UCI his spiritual role as founder was recognized in the original Articles of Incorporation, as we have already noted. More importantly, Rev. Moon expected his followers to honor the trust he gave them and to carry out their responsibilities as he instructed them to do. His own children were no exception.

Did Rev. Moon Anoint Preston Moon as the Fourth Adam? In 1998, Rev. Moon had made his son Preston Moon deputy chairman (under Chairman Rev. Kwak) of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification International (FFWPUI), which had replaced the Unification Church as the main organization for members of the Unification faith, signifying a move from focusing on the development of a church organization to the creation of a global network of families under God.

This appointment occurred at the same time that Rev. Moon gave a talk about the commencement of a new ‘Era of the 4th Adam’, indicating that the elevation of Preston Moon to a high office in the Church presaged a transition in authority to the second generation of Rev. Moon’s family, with the expectation that these younger members of the Moon family would increasingly assume public responsibilities in the Unification Movement (meaning the members and all their activities, whether strictly religious in nature—based on Rev. Moon’s teachings—or more secular in nature, in the many organizations and companies founded to advance the work of the providence).2

It should be noted that Rev. Moon never designated (or anointed!) Preston Moon as the fourth Adam. In his 1998 speech he spoke about a generalized era rather than any particular individual. However, Rev. Kwak would claim at the time to leaders from around the world who attended this event, that Rev. Moon had indeed anointed Preston Moon as his heir and the fourth Adam. (Importantly, this claim by Rev. Kwak would later be inserted as a fact in court filings on behalf of Preston Moon.) Furthermore, Rev. Moon never appointed Preston Moon to a position of overall leadership of the Unification Movement.

In 2006, Rev. Moon elevated Preston Moon to lead UCI, replacing Rev. Kwak. This appointment showed Rev. Moon’s great trust in his son, and his desire that Preston Moon become an able (and Abel-type!) leader in the Unification Movement.

However, in January 2009 Rev. Moon appointed Preston Moon’s younger brother, Hyung Jin Sean Moon, as chairman of the FFWPUI, a step which was widely understood to signify that Sean Moon would inherit the spiritual leadership of the Church. Preston Moon was not pleased, as Dong Moon Joo discovered when he went to discuss this decision with him:

In January 2009, Reverend Moon appointed his youngest son, Hyung Jin (“Sean”) Moon, to be the international President of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, the leader of the Church.

After this was announced, on May 11, 2009 I went to Bozeman, Montana to meet with Preston Moon. Preston was upset by his Father’s decision to make his younger brother the leader of the Church. Preston said that he did not covet his brother’s position as religious leader of the Church but was bothered by the fact that his younger brother’s authority as the head of the Church went beyond the religious matters into the management and direction of the Church’s non-profit organizations and other entities. Preston said that he was not going to take directions from his younger brother when it came to UCI’s activities and thought that perhaps he should “go his own way.”3

A Billion-Dollar Heist of Unification Assets This appointment of his younger brother apparently provoked a Cain-like reaction in Preston Moon, who without the permission of his father (who likely would never have agreed to what he was about to do) set out to take control of UCI for himself.

Since he had already served as deputy to the chairman of FFWPUI, Preston Moon had good reason to believe that it was he who was in line to assume the spiritual leadership of the Unification Movement and its members. As such, he would likely have eventually assumed the authority to appoint the leaders of Unification Movement entities which at this time remained the exclusive prerogative of his aging father, Rev. Moon. In that case, he would have been able to change the makeup of the UCI board to his own liking, at will. As it was, he apparently felt threatened by his younger brother’s elevation to leadership of the Church and decided to engineer a takeover of the board himself, without the foreknowledge or blessing of his father.

In his April 26, 2012 declaration to the Superior Court in Washington, DC, Dong Moon Joo explained the policy on board appointments:

Within the Unification Church certain organizations are designated as “Providential Organizations.” UCI is such a Providential Organization. The heads of Providential Organizations are required to follow and carry out the directions of the leaders of the Unification Church (Reverend Moon and Sean Moon, who is currently the International President of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, which is another name of the Unification Church today).4

According to the UCI bylaws, all board members had to be informed of any meetings of the board, and board meetings could only be convened if a quorum was in attendance. A quorum

was established by the presence at a UCI board meeting of a majority of its members (i.e. directors). Binding decisions could only be made by a majority of the quorum.

At the end of 2008, there were six UCI board members: Rev. Kwak, Preston Moon, Thomas Walsh, Victor Walters, Dong Moon Joo and Peter Kim. Preston Moon set about changing the composition of this board so that it would be controlled by him, with the support of appointees loyal to him, as we will show. With the board members in place at the time, one could assume that only Rev. Kwak would have been likely to vote with Preston Moon for the changes he was about to make, based on Rev. Kwak’s subsequent behavior.

The changes to the UCI board that Preston Moon now undertook violated the Unification Church tradition of Rev. Moon having the exclusive authority to appoint and dismiss board members and leaders of all significant Church or Church-affiliated organizations and businesses. It also violated the natural hierarchy of the Unification Movement which recognized Rev. Moon’s absolute authority in the providence. It was Rev. Moon’s providential importance that prompted members to sacrifice themselves to support him. No one else had that authority.

More importantly, Preston Moon’s actions violated the personal trust placed in him by his father as well as the institutional trust associated with leadership of UCI, which was founded by Rev. Moon and required Rev. Moon to approve all leadership appointments and dismissals.

It is important to note that while Preston Moon’s step by step takeover of the UCI board was largely within the law and consistent with the stipulations of the bylaws, it was carried out without permission from Rev. Moon and thus was immoral. (Which explains why Preston Moon was ultimately able to win court cases, but was never able to convince his father and mother, his siblings and most Unification members of the justice—let alone goodness—of his actions as head of UCI and the way he managed its assets for his own benefit.)

At the time all of this took place, FFWPUI and UCI were the most important bodies in the Unification Church, the former being responsible for internal, Church-related matters worldwide, and the latter holding by far the most valuable Unification Movement assets—in many cases through its ownership of major subsidiaries, as mentioned above. These assets, located primarily in the United States and Korea, were potentially worth billions of dollars.

Preston Moon’s takeover of UCI was carried out in a process through which he controlled each of the steps to assure the outcome he wanted, all while keeping this secret from his father and in violation of the cardinal yet unwritten rule governing appointments and dismissals of key leaders of providential Unification Movement ventures.

A Boardroom Coup The steps Preston Moon took to gain personal control of UCI, with the assistance of Rev. Kwak, amounted to a boardroom coup. Here below is a summary of the relevant actions and their consequences, presented with the understanding that not all the details can be confirmed, but

that the broad strokes of what happened are supported by facts recorded in documents and the court testimony of many of the key players.

As noted, most of Preston Moon and Rev. Kwak’s moves were within the rules set down in the bylaws, but they masked a self-serving and duplicitous scheme that amounted to a clear betrayal of the trust vested in them by Rev. Moon.

The Main Characters: 1. Rev. Sun Myung Moon, founder and leader of the Unification Movement 2. Hyun Jin Preston Moon, oldest living son of Rev. Moon 3. Kook Jin Moon, younger brother of Preston Moon, and the head of Kahr Arms. He supports: 4. Hyung Jin Sean Moon, youngest son of Rev. Moon 5. Rev. Chung Hwan Kwak, for decades the most important, most trusted disciple of Rev. Moon 6. Jin Hyo Kwak, Rev. Kwak’s son, UCI CFO and right hand to Preston Moon 7. Jin Man Kwak, Rev. Kwak’s son, appointed to the UCI board by Preston Moon 8. Jin Sook Kwak, the daughter of Rev. Kwak, the sister of Jin Hyo Kwak and Jin Man Kwak and the wife of Preston Moon 9. Shin Sook Kwak, the daughter of Rev. Kwak, the sister of Jin Hyo Kwak and Jin Man Kwak, and the wife of Young Jun Kim, who was appointed to the UCI board by Preston Moon 10. Young Jun Kim, Rev. Kwak’s son-in-law, appointed to the UCI board by Preston Moon 11. Bo Hi Pak, established UCI in 1977, and was its first leader, under Rev. Moon’s instructions 12. Peter Kim, long time inner circle member of Rev. Moon’s household and UCI board member 13. Dong Moon Joo, long time disciple of Rev. Moon, for years headed UCI’s board, News World Communications, Insight magazine, The Washington Times and UPI. 14. Thomas Walsh, UCI board member removed by Preston Moon. He worked closely with Rev. Kwak for many years and became president of the Universal Peace Federation 15. Victor Walters, UCI board member removed by Preston Moon 16. Michael Sommer, close associate of Preston Moon, who appointed him to the UCI board 17. Richard Perea, close associate of Preston Moon, who appointed him to the UCI board 18. Daniel Gray, counsel and company secretary for UCI during the takeover by Preston Moon

The Key Actions and their Consequences:

1. Action: January 6, 2009, Rev. Kwak submits a letter of resignation from the UCI board to his son-in-law, Preston Moon, the chairman. We don’t know what Rev. Kwak’s intentions were at the time, or whether Rev. Moon knew of this change, or approved it, but this move set in motion the dramatic changes that were to follow in the coming week. And we do know that any changes to the UCI board were considered of great importance to Rev. Moon, and had to be made or approved by him. By stepping down, Rev. Kwak changed the size of the quorum from four members to three, which would prove a necessary change to facilitate the takeover of the board by Preston Moon.

Result: This left five board members, with a quorum of three necessary for board meetings to be convened and binding decisions made.

2. Action: Some time in early January, 2009: According to testimony by Daniel Gray (UCI counsel at the time), Jin Hyo Kwak (Rev. Kwak’s son, UCI CFO and Preston Moon’s right-hand man) informs Gray that Preston Moon wants him to send out an email notice of a telephonic board meeting to be held on January 11, at 9am.5

3. Action: January 9, 2009: Daniel Gray sends out to all board members an email notice of a special UCI board meeting to be held by telephone on January 11 at 9am EST. Meanwhile, UCI board members Thomas Walsh and Victor Walters, and company secretary Daniel Gray, are told by Jin Hyo Kwak to attend the meeting in person.

January 11, 2009: The board meeting is postponed to the next day, January 12, at 7am, to be held at a hotel in Phoenix, Arizona. No general notice was sent out regarding the new date. Daniel Gray and Jin Hyo Kwak meet in Phoenix in advance of this meeting, where they are joined by Walsh and Walters, who had been told not to bring cell phones or laptops to the meeting.

Result: Apparently no one told board member Peter Kim that the meeting on January 11, at 9am EST has been postponed to January 12 at 7am. Neither does he know what the purpose of the meeting is, since it was not given in the email notification. This is significant since Peter Kim would have been the most likely member on the board to inform Rev. Moon of this development immediately, since he was typically with Rev. Moon.

4. Action: January 12, 2009: A special board meeting is held at a hotel in Phoenix, Arizona, with Thomas Walsh and Victor Walters in attendance, along with UCI counsel and secretary Daniel Gray. Preston Moon and Dong Moon Joo (who apparently had been informed of the new date in person) attend by phone. Preston Moon informs the participants in the meeting that Rev. Kwak has resigned and that he intends to appoint two new board members to take Rev. Kwak’s place. Preston Moon first proposes adding Mike Sommer to the board, based on his educational and experiential qualifications which is agreed to with considerable enthusiasm by other board members, and approved unanimously, according to the official minutes. He then proposes adding Richard Perea as well, since he was also known to other board members and was said to be able to assist the board with its Latin American holdings. Again no objections were raised, and the appointment was unanimously passed, according to the minutes and transcript of the meeting.6 The appointments take effect immediately. (Sommer and Perea are especially close and loyal assistants to Preston Moon, and would be expected to support his board decisions.)

(The need for two new directors to replace Rev. Kwak could be argued as preferable to having an even number, to avoid tie votes, and indeed Walters raises this point during the January 12 board meeting.7 At this point, the board members in attendance at the January 12 meeting had no reason to suspect that Preston Moon was undertaking a complete takeover of the UCI board, and would have assumed that Rev. Kwak had approved his replacements, which he likely did.)

5. Action: Also at the special board meeting on January 12, 2009, the UCI bylaws were amended to permit notification of board meetings to its members by email. This was a change suggested by Walsh and applauded by Preston Moon.8 This change might prevent the discovery that Gray’s January 9 email notification of the January 11 board meeting was made by a method not permitted by the UCI bylaws at the time, with the consequence that any decisions made at the meeting were consequentially void. Before the January 12 change, the UCI bylaws stipulated: “Notice of any special meeting shall be given, personally or by mail, cable, cablegram, telex or telegraph to each director not less than (2) days prior to the meeting.”9

To sustain this attempted coverup of a violation of the bylaws, the official minutes of the January 12 board meeting prepared and signed by UCI secretary Daniel Gray, falsely stated: “The only Director absent from the meeting was Peter H. Kim, who was duly notified of the meeting in accordance with UCI’s bylaws.”10 Kim was only invited by email, and then to a meeting that never took place, on January 11 at 9am.

Result: Rev. Kwak, Dong Moon Joo and Peter Kim all had direct access to Rev. Moon, and all of them had a moral obligation to inform Rev. Moon about any significant changes to the board, including any planned changes in board members. Preston Moon as chairman was particularly responsible to inform his father of any such planned changes, in order to secure approval.

Peter Kim was probably the most ‘dangerous’ board member in Preston Moon’s eyes since he might have been able to convince Joo, Walsh and Walters to block the appointment of Sommer and Perea, pending receipt of approval from Rev. Moon. Therefore, misleading Kim as to the time and place of the board meeting was critically important in getting the changes Preston Moon wanted before an alarm could be raised and his father informed of what was afoot.

By resigning from the UCI board, Rev, Kwak had ostensibly absolved himself of any responsibility for subsequent moves by Preston Moon. However, members of his family played critical roles in Preston Moon’s step-by-step takeover of the UCI board, from beginning to end, especially Jin Hyo Kwak, who spoke on behalf of his father and Preston Moon. (At that time, Rev. Kwak was the most senior leader in the whole Unification Movement, and assumed to have the full trust of Rev. Moon. One Kwak son, and one son-in- law became members of the board, despite their youth and lack of relevant experience, and Kwak family members continue in prominent leadership positions in Preston Moon’s organizations to this day.)

The addition of Sommer and Perea brought total board membership to seven, with four a quorum. Preston Moon still needed one more board member on his side, and he had already prepared for this next step ahead of the Arizona meeting, by having resignation letters for Walsh and Walters prepared in advance. These two directors were under Rev.

Kwak’s authority and could easily be persuaded to step down from the board. Walsh in particular was a trusted (and trusting) leader under Rev. Kwak. Neither Walsh nor Walters had direct access to Rev. Moon, and thus were much easier to remove than Joo and Kim.

6. Action: Later on January 12, 2009: Unbeknownst to other members of the board, after the board had already added Sommer and Perea, Jin Hyo Kwak told Walsh and Walters (separately) that Preston Moon and Rev. Kwak wanted them to resign from the UCI board. (Remember, they had no phones or computers to get this confirmed or denied.) They must have been surprised since no mention of this plan had been made at the board meeting earlier that day, or in the notice for that meeting. However, being faithful members, they both must have assumed that this was something Rev. Moon himself wanted. They separately signed the previously prepared resignation letters, to which they only had to add the exact date in January: January 12, 2009, and hand them to Jin Hyo Kwak.

Result: For the takeover of the UCI to work smoothly, and without any information getting to Rev. Moon before it was completed, Walsh and Walters had to be on hand to sign resignations as soon as possible after the 7am board meeting was over. If word of the planned changes had got to Rev. Moon in time, it is most likely that he would have stopped the process. When Walsh and Walters happily approved the addition of Sommers and Perea, they could not have known that they were de facto making way for their own replacements, loyal to Preston Moon rather than Rev. Moon, and thus helping Preston Moon achieve his goal.

By surreptitiously making these changes to the board on a single day, Preston Moon had taken control of the UCI board in one swift move before Rev. Moon could learn of it and intervene. Now he, Sommer and Perea formed a quorum of three out of a total board membership of five (the other two being Joo and Kim).

Peter Kim and Dong Moon Joo were never informed of the removal of Walsh and Walters from the board, but found out by chance some three months later when a subsidiary of UCI needed to know who sat on the UCI board of directors. At that time, they learned that Walsh and Walters were no longer on the UCI board, but they did not know when they had resigned. (The resignation of Walsh and Walters did not become more widely known until it was revealed during the Washington, DC court case, in 2017 and 2018.)

Thus it was three months after the fact that Peter Kim and Dong Moon Joo knew the board was controlled by Preston Moon, with all the stupendous and deeply troubling consequences this implied—for Rev. Moon and the whole Unification Movement.

7. Action: July 2009: According to Gray’s testimony, Peter Kim and Dong Moon Joo ask Gray to send out a notice to board members of a board meeting in Korea scheduled for July 12, 2009, and tell him that he is also invited to attend. (Under UCI bylaws, two board members could request a special board meeting.) The stated purpose of the meeting is the addition of two new directors (Ki Hoon Kim—later leader of the US church—and Sun Jin Moon, Rev.

Moon’s daughter), as requested by Rev. Moon. The meeting was to be held in Chung Pyung, and to be followed the next day with a lunch hosted by Rev. Moon.

Result: Gray sends out the notice but later testified that he was advised by Jin Hyo Kwak and Michael Sommer not to go to Korea for the meeting. The other three board members did not go either, so only Peter Kim and Dong Moon Joo were there. Without a quorum no new board members could be appointed.

The refusal of Preston Moon, Michael Sommers, Richard Perea and Daniel Gray to participate in this board meeting was a direct repudiation of Rev. Moon’s authority over UCI, and the moment when Rev. Moon became fully aware of the depth of the betrayal of his eldest son, Preston Moon, and his most trusted disciple, Rev. Kwak.

8. Action: Late July, 2009: After hearing complaints about Preston Moon using his position at UCI to engage in self-dealing, Dong Moon Joo and Peter Kim threaten to open a UCI board investigation into these accusations. For charitable corporations such as UCI, self-dealing is generally considered the cardinal sin for board members and officers, under IRS laws. Self- dealing can be anything from awarding a contract to a board member’s company or to a company owned by a relative or friend, to using a non-profit’s resources to purchase personal property for use by a board member or in some other way to benefit a board member or his family.

Prior to threatening this action, Joo asks Preston Moon to address these complaints himself. He refuses and instead acts quickly to preempt an investigation by calling a UCI board meeting to remove Joo and Kim from the board. As Joo states in his declaration:

Between late spring and August 2009, Dr. Peter Kim (another UCI director) and I learned of certain possible self-dealing transactions by Preston Moon in his capacity as President and Chairman of UCI. When l attempted to look into these matters, Preston refused to discuss them with me. Instead, after Dr. Kim and I made known our intention to investigate these transactions, a special meeting of UCI’ s board of directors was convened. At the special meeting, I raised my concerns about the transactions that appeared to involve self-dealing by Preston Moon. Preston denied any wrongdoing. Then, Preston Moon and Messrs. Perea and Sommer, whom he had placed on the Board in January 2009, voted to remove Dr. Kim and myself from the board, effectively foreclosing any action by the UCI board to investigate or remedy the possible self- dealing by Preston Moon.11

9. Action: In late July, 2009: On the evening of the same day that Preston Moon learned that Joo and Kim were planning to launch an investigation into what they claimed was self- dealing by Preston Moon, notice of a UCI board meeting is sent out by UCI’s secretary, Daniel Gray. The meeting is scheduled to be held on August 2, 2009. No purpose for the meeting is given.

10. Action: August 2, 2009: At this board meeting, Dong Moon Joo confronts Preston Moon with charges that he has engaged in self-dealing. Of particular concern is Preston Moon directing payment of millions of dollars by UCI through its True World Holdings and One Up Enterprises subsidiaries to his wholly owned company, United Vision Group and its subsidiaries (UV Sales and UVG Strategic Consulting), to purchase property and services, respectively, all without approval of the UCI board and in contravention of self-dealing laws in the District of Columbia.12

11. Preston Moon denies these charges and then moves that Peter Kim be removed from the board. This resolution passes—Preston Moon, Mike Sommer and Richard Perea voting in favor, while Peter Kim did not vote (since the vote was about his membership) and Joo abstained. Preston Moon then proposed to remove Dong Moon Joo as well, and this also passed. (It should be noted that by this time Preston Moon controlled a quorum with Sommer and Perea, so Kim and Joo could not stop their dismissal even if they wanted to.) It hardly needs stating, but these removals were not approved by Rev. Moon, and Rev. Moon’s subsequent requests that they be reinstated were ignored by Preston Moon.

Result: All of Rev. Moon’s loyal followers who opposed the takeover had now been removed, and the UCI board was composed of Preston Moon, Mike Sommer and Richard Perea, with a quorum of just two directors.

12. Action: August 9, 2009: Rev. Moon meets with Peter Kim and Dong Moon Joo, as well as other leaders of the Church. During this meeting, Rev. Moon notes that Preston Moon became Chairman of the Board of UCI because he was trusted to carry out Rev. Moon’s vision for it and its related projects. Rev. Moon further says that Preston Moon “went against the recommendations and expectations of UCI’s Founder by not supporting the election of two new UCI Directors—Ms. Sun Jin Moon and Bishop Ki Hoon Kim, and by removing Dr. Douglas Joo and Dr. Peter Kim from the UCI board.” Accordingly, Rev. Moon’s and the Family Federation’s “trust [in Preston Moon] was broken.”13

Result: The Unification Church now reacts to the rebellion of Preston Moon against his father by cutting relations with him. Donations from Japan to UCI stop immediately. In November 2009 Preston Moon resigns from the UPF board, and in February 2010 he is removed from the HSA-UWC board. Meanwhile, from the moment he removes Peter Kim and Dong Moon Joo from the UCI board he treats UCI and its subsidiaries as his own companies, disposing of assets according to his own priorities.

13. Action: August 23, 2009: In lieu of a board meeting, Preston Moon signs a Unanimous Written Consent of the UCI board appointing two new directors: Rev. Kwak’s son Jin Man Kwak and his son-in-law, Young Jun Kim (husband of Shin Sook Kwak). Sommer had already signed the Consent on August 21 and Perea signed it on August 24.

Result: Now the UCI board is controlled not only by Preston Moon and his two loyalists, but by members of his family through his wife Jun Sook Kwak, whose brother and husband complete the necessary three board members to form a family-only quorum.

14. Action: April 14, 2010: A UCI board meeting is convened to discuss proposed changes to the UCI articles of incorporation. The changes are approved.14 According to Richard Perea in testimony he gave on March 8, 2018, the reason for changing the UCI articles was that UCI’s close association with the Unification Church represented a problem for raising money for projects like Parc1 in Korea. As it soon became clear, this move also facilitated the establishment in 2010 of Kingdom Investments Foundation (KIF) in Switzerland, which had no apparent affiliation with the Church, but included the following purpose from the modified and rather vague purposes in the revised UCI articles: “Promote and support the understanding and teaching of the theology and principles of the Unification Movement.”

KIF was the entity Preston Moon planned to use to hold many of UCI’s Korean assets, as well as some held by UCI’s US subsidiary Landmark Investment Company.15 Perea was the key person representing Preston Moon on the KIF board, and in his March 8, 2012 testimony he claimed that another benefit of transferring assets to KIF was reducing tax risk incurred through American ownership of Korean assets.16 A third benefit, he claimed, was to prevent the Korean assets being “lost.”17

15. Action: May 13, 2010: The corporate name is officially changed from Unification Church International to a ‘religion-free’ UCI. There are other significant changes:

A. Here are some of the explicit purposes in the original 1977 Articles:18

THIRD: A. Purposes. “The purposes for which the Corporation [UCI] is organized are as follows:

“(1) To operate exclusively for religious, charitable, educational, literary and scientific purposes within the meaning of Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954.

“(2) To serve as an international organization assisting, advising, coordinating, and guiding the activities of Unification Churches organized and operated throughout the world.

“(3) To promote the worship of God, and to study, understand and teach the Divine Principle, the new revelation of God, and, through the practical application of the Divine Principle, to achieve the interdenominational, interreligious, and international unification of world Christianity and all other religions.

“(4) To establish, support and maintain, anywhere in the world, such place or places for the worship of God and for the study, understanding and teaching of the Divine

Principle—as may be necessary or desirable, to further the theology of the Unification Church.

“(5) To publish and disseminate throughout the world, newspapers, books, tracts and other publications in order to carry forward the dissemination and understanding of the Divine Principle, the unification of world Christianity and all other religions, or otherwise to further the purposes of the Corporation [UCI].

“(6) To sponsor and conduct cultural, educational, religious, and evangelical programs for the purpose of furthering the understanding of the Divine Principle, the unification of world Christianity and other religions, world peace, harmony of all mankind, interfaith understanding between all races, colors and creeds throughout the world, and for such other purposes consistent with the Divine Principle and the purposes of the Corporation [UCI].

In the revised articles of 2010, this long list of purposes explicitly requiring UCI to promote the worship of God and education in the Divine Principle, as well as other Unification Church activities, are replaced with this single purpose, which is also used as the purpose for KIF:

THIRD (c): “To promote and support the understanding and teaching of the theology and principles of the Unification Movement.”19 [Since Unification Movement is not a legal entity, interpretation of this article is subject to very broad interpretation.]

Furthermore, all mention of Rev. Sun Myung Moon and his pivotal role in establishing UCI (quoted on Page 2) are gone. Remember, the original said Rev. Moon, “provided the inspiration and spiritual leadership for the founding of the Corporation [UCI] and is the spiritual leader of the international Unification Church movement.”

B. The language covering the use of assets and earnings of UCI, including in the event of its dissolution, in the original UCI articles stipulate that they must be used exclusively for purposes consistent with the IRS 501c3, tax exempt law (which would typically be purely charitable ventures). This stipulation is removed in the 2010 articles:

Original: Third Article, (8) B. Prohibitions. (2) “No part of the assets or net earnings of this Corporation shall ever be used, nor shall this Corporation ever be organized or operated, for purposes that are not exclusively religious, charitable, scientific, literary, or educational within the meaning of Section 501(c)(3) of the [IRS] Code.”20

Original: Third Article, (8) B. Prohibitions. (8) “No director, officer or employee of or member of a committee of or person connected with the Corporation, or any other private individual shall be entitled to share in the distribution of the corporate assets upon the dissolution of the Corporation. Upon such dissolution or winding up of the affairs of the Corporation, whether voluntary or involuntary, the assets of the

corporation then remaining in the hands of the board of directors shall, after paying or making provisions for payment of all of the liabilities of the Corporation, be distributed, transferred, conveyed, delivered, and paid over only to educational, scientific, religious, literary and charitable organizations that have been held to be exempt from Federal income tax as are described in Section 501 (c) (3} of the Internal Revenue Code and which are not private foundations within the meaning of Section 509(a) of the Internal Revenue Code…”21

Compare this to the amended articles (2010): “ELEVENTH: Upon dissolution of the Corporation, all of its assets and property of every nature and description remaining after the payment of all liabilities and obligations of the Corporation (but not including assets held by the Corporation upon condition requiring return, transfer, or conveyance, which condition occurs by reason of the dissolution) shall be paid over and transferred to one or more domestic or foreign corporations that engage in activities which are similar to those described in Article THIRD hereof.”22

Result: As we have pointed out above, “Article THIRD hereof” is the much-diluted version of the original purposes for UCI, giving Preston Moon a great deal more flexibility in the disposition of assets and earnings. This would be important for the 2010 transfer of UCI assets held in Korea as well as assets of UCI’s US-based subsidiary Landmark Investment Company, and a Landmark subsidiary, Zeus Capital, Ltd., to the newly-formed Swiss company, Kingdom Investments Foundation. KIF was set up under the board control of two of Preston Moon’s close associates, Richard Perea and Aya Goto.

Perea had resigned from the UCI board on May 13, 2010, to avoid a conflict of interest with KIF, although he was still president and sole member of Landmark Investment Company on June 28, 2010, when the contract among Landmark, UCI and KIF was signed, as he himself testified, resulting in another clear conflict of interest.23

The change of UCI’s articles, the creation of KIF and the transfer of assets to it from UCI and Landmark were all actions undertaken by Preston Moon without the knowledge or approval of Rev. Moon. (The amendment of UCI’s articles in April, 2010 was only discovered by chance in mid-May 2010, when someone not affiliated with Preston Moon found this out at the DC Corporations Office.)

16. Action: 2010: UCI and Landmark transfer major assets to KIF, including well over a billion dollars worth of assets that UCI holds in Korea: majority interests in Parc1, Central City in Seoul, and Ilsung Corporation (a construction company), and a stake in the YongPyong ski resort, as well as other holdings. Landmark transfers $467 million to KIF, Perea confirms in his March 8, 2018 testimony.

To give you an idea of the value of these assets, Parc1 alone has been estimated to be a project worth $1.524 to $2 billion25 (although the percentage controlled by Preston Moon, and its value, are unknown), and a 60% stake in Seoul’s Central City sold for $814 million in

2012, according to The Korea Herald,26 or $1.1 billion, according to The Korea Times,27 although the net value to Preston Moon is unknown. (According to the testimony of Perea referenced in Item 12 above, the UCI board appeared not to know the net value of assets transferred to KIF at the time, which is equivalent to approving a donation without knowing the amount! This was yet another dereliction of duty by the UCI board.)

Parc1 was a development on a piece of land located on Yeouido Island in Seoul, owned by the Tongil Foundation (the Korean entity holding major Unification Church assets in Korea), which Rev. Moon had long wanted to be used for an international headquarters, but was unable to receive municipal approval for this purpose. Eventually, Tongil Foundation under Rev Kwak’s leadership leased the Yeouido land to Parc1, which Rev. Kwak helped set up with his business-savvy assistant, Paul Rogers, with Landmark holding the controlling interest and developing the site through a company called Y22.

Parc1 Construction was started in 2008, halted in 2011 due to a lawsuit claiming lease violations, brought by Tongil Foundation under Kook Jin Moon’s leadership, and resumed in 2017, after the church lost the case and had to pay a hefty fine. It was completed in 2020.

Note: In the June 28, 2010 agreement among UCI, Landmark and KIF (referenced above), UCI maintained veto power over KIF board appointments, at least for a year.28 Today, in 2024, the original KIF board has been replaced with individuals who don’t appear to be affiliated with the Unification Movement, and the apparent purposes of this Foundation have changed, suggesting that likely the Unification assets it held were soon transferred on, probably to an entity more tightly under Preston Moon’s control, and most likely registered in Malaysia, since Central City was sold by a Malaysian company to a Korean company Shensegae in 2012.

Result: Preston Moon moves major UCI assets to the ownership of a Swiss company beyond the reach of US and Korean authorities, and ‘out of sight’ of Rev. Moon and other top Unification Church leaders, except Rev. Kwak and his family. With no representatives loyal to Rev. Moon on the UCI or KIF boards, Preston Moon is able to make decisions about the disposition of these assets, whether located in Korea or the Americas, without the interference of any of his family members or senior leaders of the Unification Church and Unification Movement.

17. Action: May 11, 2011 the Church starts to fight back to reclaim control of UCI and the Unification Movement assets that Preston Moon now controls, through the courts in Washington, DC, where UCI is registered. FFWPUI, the Universal Peace Federation (UPF), HSA-UWC Japan and Dong Moon Joo and Peter Kim on behalf of UCI bring a suit against Preston Moon and the new UCI board, accusing them of, “…the usurpation of UCI and its assets…” and self-dealing. The core charges are summarized in this paragraph:

Beginning in 2009, Preston Moon orchestrated an illegal takeover of the Corporation [UCI] after Reverend Sun Myung Moon, the founder of the Unification Church and father of Preston Moon, named Preston Moon’s younger brother Hyung Jin (“Sean”) Moon (hereinafter “Sean Moon”), and not Preston, the future spiritual leader and head of the

worldwide Unification Church and International President of the Family Federation. The other Individual Defendants aided and abetted Preston Moon in this illegal takeover. Together, the Individual Defendants diverted funds that the Japanese Church and other Unification Church entities donated to UCI away from their intended charitable use, which was to support the Unification Church and its affiliated or related organizations, including Plaintiff UPF. Instead, the Individual Defendants caused donated funds to be used to support Preston Moon’s personal and non-Unification Church-related projects. These actions violated the purposes of the Unification Church International trust and the mission and purpose of UCI as expressed in its original Articles of Incorporation. Additionally, Preston Moon, aided and abetted by the other Individual Defendants, has engaged in improper self-dealing designed to enrich him and entities he owns and/or controls in violation of his fiduciary duties to, and at the expense of, UCI.29

Result: Litigating this case becomes a years-long legal battle in Washington, DC courts. FFWPUI et al initially are successful and a $500 million penalty is imposed on the defendants. However, on appeal, this ruling is finally reversed conclusively on August 28, 2023, leaving Preston Moon in control of all the assets he has taken.

In a modest, albeit temporary, success for the Church, in 2011 or 2012, once the creation of KIF had come to light, the FFWPUI and its plaintiff partners succeeded in getting a court order blocking any further transfers of Unification Movement assets to KIF. (This order was lifted in the final, omnibus order of August 11, 2023.)

The legal battle in Washington, DC was just one of several disputes taken to court over control of assets that took place in various locations around the world. These court cases have cost hundreds of millions of dollars altogether. All of this money was contributed by members in good faith that it would be spent on the providence. Preston Moon and his followers blame the FFWPUI for these costs, but it was he who initiated this total waste of heaven’s resources by disobeying his father. The ultimate impact on the providence is impossible to measure, but it is immense.

Selling The Washington Times: A Stab in the Back for Rev. Moon As the takeover of UCI shows, Preston Moon was intent on taking control of Unification Movement assets and building a business empire he controlled that was worth hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars. As we’ve noted, UCI ownership of assets was partly through subsidiaries, such as News World Communications. Although he must have known how deeply his father was committed to The Washington Times, News World’s flagship publication, Preston Moon first fired its Unificationist leaders (such as Dong Moon Joo, Tom McDevitt and Keith Cooperrider) and then installed a new president, Jonathan Slevin, with the mandate to slim down the paper and cut its costs dramatically.

At the same time he put the paper up for sale, and at least one serious offer was made for it. This offer and the prospect of a sale gave him negotiating leverage in bargaining for control of other UCI assets, but all at the cost of his aging father, who was distraught at the prospect of

losing the Times, a project that had been so close to his heart and created at such a high price of sacrifice by members for decades, especially in Japan.

Preston Moon’s father was responsible for all the assets accumulated by UCI and for winning all the members who had joined the movement and made its accomplishments possible. In short these assets were the tangible fruit of his father’s life of incredible suffering on behalf of God and the whole of humanity, a foundation for the providence that Preston Moon was now trying to take control of for himself.

In the end Preston Moon negotiated a settlement and sold the Times back to the Church for a dollar. But the betrayal of Rev. Moon and the providence had been taken to a new level by the son using his control of such a prized project to wrest concessions from his father. This betrayal amounted to a virtual stabbing of his father in the back.

A Betrayal of Historic Significance Rev. Kwak was recognized by most Unificationists to be the closest person on earth to Rev. Moon, next only to Rev. Moon’s wife, Hak Ja Han. This trust was evident as Rev. Moon heaped one major responsibility on him after another.

In his autobiographical book, The Truth Shall Prevail: Understanding the Conflict Within the Unification Movement and Its Resolution, published in 2019, Rev. Kwak says he stopped attending Hoon Dok Hae with True Parents in December, 2009 because he was repeatedly attacked by Rev. Moon during those sessions. He says he could not understand why, although less than half a year earlier Rev. Moon had discovered the treachery of Preston Moon and Rev. Kwak at UCI:

I remember the day: December 2, 2009. My seat was in the front row, as always… Father suddenly launched into a fierce indictment of my two sons: “I do not know when Chung Hwan Kwak will sell the Unification Church. Do you think that the second and third generations will follow what Jin Man and Jin Hyo have done and what they have planned?”30

Father ordered me to stay away from him and didn’t want to see me for three years… Although I cannot understand why this has happened, now just the very sight of me causes Father to become enraged, and I am forced to continually receive Father’s reproach. At this point I think I have reached the limit…31

A partial explanation for this bewilderment could be Rev. Kwak’s own interpretation of the 1998 speech by Rev. Moon about the Fourth Adam. Among other leaders and members in attendance, regional leaders from around the world were invited to that speech and celebration with the understanding from Rev. Kwak that this was indeed the official announcement that Preston Moon had been chosen as the Fourth Adam, and would be taking over leadership of the Unification Movement.

This might have been Rev. Moon’s long-term intention, since Preston Moon was the oldest surviving son, but no such announcement was ever made. Nevertheless, as if to confirm the father-in-law’s belief, those working closely with Rev. Kwak after this were made to understand that he was preparing the way for Preston Moon to assume leadership of the movement.

However, at a critical point, Preston Moon demanded absolute loyalty to himself, and key members in Rev. Kwak’s inner circle, like Thomas Walsh and Taj Hamad, saw this as a deviation from their higher commitment to True Parents and declined, continuing with the Universal Peace Federation as it came under the control of FFWPUI, now no longer led by Rev. Kwak.

Once Preston Moon began to separate himself from his father, apparently Rev. Kwak made a critical decision, choosing to follow Preston Moon rather than Rev. Moon. No doubt the choice did not appear so starkly at first, but by the time Preston Moon decided to disobey his father over UCI leadership, Rev. Kwak was his key ally and facilitator—his own family becoming subservient to Preston Moon. Rev. Moon’s anger towards Rev. Kwak likely came from judging him to have failed in educating Preston Moon properly (or at least reporting his betrayal at UCI instead of collaborating with him on the heist of Unification assets.)

In his course, Jesus was betrayed again and again by those prepared by God to receive and follow him. These betrayals began in this own family and that of his cousin John the Baptist. They were amplified when he was rejected by the political and religious establishments of Israel, who conspired to have him killed. The last straw was the betrayal of his own disciples, first Judas and then the rest, including Peter, James and John, who fled when he was arrested.

Rev. Moon must have felt a similar betrayal by Rev. Kwak, this time greatly magnified by the involvement of Preston Moon, his own son, who broke his father’s heart through his own betrayal. You can see Rev. Moon’s great frustration and anger unabated two years later in this 2011 video, titled: Hyun Jin Moon and Chung Hwan Kwak family are not doing Father’s will.

Not only does Rev. Moon accuse them of “not doing Father’s will,” but of “stealing money and property that belong to True Parents.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtCFEp5S_98

Conclusion It is not a simple matter for Unificationists to face the significance of what took place at UCI. Members have learned to trust their leaders, and especially members of the Moon family, to show a higher standard of faith and integrity than they themselves might be able to muster. This account shatters that trust, to a significant degree. At the same time, however, the enormous damage that took place cannot be overlooked, cannot be swept under the carpet of history.

For Unificationists in general, it is very important to understand what Preston Moon and Rev. Kwak did, so that members can think more clearly about the Divine Providence and their role in it. For members who are part of Preston Moon’s organizations, and especially those who draw salaries from those organizations, coming to terms with the reality of what their leader did may well incur a particular sacrifice. However, as Heung Jin Moon used to say, “To know is to be 18

responsible.” Plus they should recognize that they have enjoyed a privilege available only to a small handful of Unificationists, the vast majority of whom have never enjoyed financial benefits from their membership in the Church.

What happened at UCI was a providence-breaking betrayal of Rev. Sun Myung Moon. Not only did it cause him immense pain on behalf of our Heavenly Father, it was also an outright insult to all the faithful members who sacrificed so greatly to provide Rev. Moon with the resources he needed to save humanity from the darkness of Satan’s world.

One cannot help but feel in particular the great pain of the Japanese members, who gave so much to the providence under Rev. Moon, and who now are suffering terrible persecution from their government. This persecution is the result of their great sacrifices in obedience to extreme demands for money. It is truly sickening to see how Preston Moon and Rev. Kwak have felt so entitled as to divert the assets purchased with these members’ blood, sweat and tears for their own purposes, however virtuous they may claim these purposes to be.

It should be remembered, too, that this was also a betrayal of all the Abel-type saints and sages of providential history, who sacrificed for this moment, only to see the foundation they helped lay through lives of great suffering and sacrifice shattered by the selfish behavior of a handful of individuals blessed to be at the center of the Divine Providence at this time, who nevertheless failed miserably in their core responsibilities.

The real sin committed by Preston Moon and Rev. Kwak was the misuse of monies contributed by ordinary, hard-working and sacrificial members. None of those dollars was earned or belonged to Preston Moon or Rev. Kwak, but all belonged to God and the providence, and thereby to all who sacrificed for the providence—with Rev. Moon the one person on earth qualified to dispose of these resources according to the divine will.

It is clear from the evidence we have included here that Rev. Moon was profoundly disturbed and angry at what Preston Moon and Rev. Kwak engineered at UCI, from when he first learned of it around mid-2009 until his death, in 2012 (as confirmed by the 2011 video we referenced on page 17). The disobedient and surreptitious diversion of so many major Unification Movement assets to the control of Preston Moon was a devastating blow to his father, breaking his heart and likely contributing to his passing ahead of the all-important Foundation Day he so wanted to reach.

Preston Moon and his followers may try to justify his acts by claiming that bad leaders had too much control over the assets; or that as eldest living son he was entitled to ‘inherit’ the assets from his father; or that in his self-understanding as ‘The Fourth Adam’ he enjoys the same authority over assets as Rev. Moon; or that with an MBA degree from Harvard he knows better than everyone (including his father) how best to use the Unification assets, etc. Yet none of these ‘reasons’ were ever recognized by Rev. Moon, and no explanation can justify the act of defying his father in the vitally important matter of who should control the assets of the Unification Church and its members.

The consequences of the decisions made by Preston Moon and Rev. Kwak have been devastating: ultimately leading to the breakup of the movement and, perhaps more seriously, to the breakup of Rev. Moon’s family. There are very good reasons why these two leaders are mistrusted by the majority of Unificationists and why Preston Moon was estranged from his parents and siblings in 2009, and remains estranged from his mother and siblings to this day. He may be utilizing assets under his control more skillfully than those under the control of his mother, but this does not absolve him of responsibility for his betrayal of Rev. Moon and the rest of the Unification Movement and its members.

Unificationists should share Rev. Moon’s outrage at what Preston Moon and Rev. Kwak and his family did. If they have been lulled into acquiescence as followers of Preston Moon and Rev. Kwak by the rationalizations these leaders put forward to justify their actions, they should face the reality and end their support at once.

To reverse the damage done, and to initiate a move towards a reconciliation among the members of Unification factions that now divide members—all too often with bitter recriminations—Preston Moon must come clean about his secretive acquisition of assets and how he has disposed of them up to this moment. Second, he should begin to reverse the damage caused by working with competent members to find the best way to place the assets he controls into an entity that enjoys transparent management and is run by mature representatives chosen democratically to represent Unificationists everywhere, so that it can truly serve God and the Divine Providence.

This gesture should encourage the Family Federation and other Church entities holding assets to follow suit, so that both local, national and international assets held by the various factions can be pooled at the appropriate levels and managed efficiently for the greatest benefit to all members and to the Divine Providence we are all here to serve. (There is no need for the assets held by local groups of members, or their organizations, to be pooled in an international entity, and for national and international assets there should be corresponding entities established that are governed by leaders with corresponding responsibilities.)

Final Thoughts: How to Save the Unification Movement The quote from Rev. Moon at the beginning of this article is a description of an Abel-type person, someone who serves God and the Divine Providence sacrificially and with humility, even at the cost of his or her life. Such Abel-type people should be those leading our movement, whether members of the Moon family or not. Only in this way can the Unification Movement and its many members and activities play an Abel-type role in the world.

There are many responsible Abel-type individuals in the movement, from foreign missionaries who continue to serve their countries and the people living there long after the missionary’s official assignment has ended, to individuals and families who devote all their time and resources to advancing the providence, to the best of their ability.

Looking back down the long history of the providence, it is sacrificial people who stand out as virtuous role models, from Noah, Abraham, Jacob and Joseph, to Moses, Samuel, David, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel, Ezra and Nehemiah, in the Old Testament, to (above all) Jesus. In Christian history it is saintly figures like Stephen, the first martyr, Paul, Francis of Assisi, John Wycliff, Jan Hus, Martin Luther, Francis Xavier, Teresa of Avila, Julian of Norwich, the Pilgrims and modern-day saints like Mother Teresa who stand out as models to be emulated.

In the history of the Unification Movement there are a good many saintly members, who have often gone unsung. Leaders, however, not only set examples for members, but have an outsize impact on the providence by shaping the public identity of the Movement. When they fail the result can be far-reaching.

Rev. Kwak himself was long respected by members for a truly sacrificial life of devotion to Rev. Moon and the Church. However, the moment he used this saintly status to help Preston Moon take control of UCI—with clear benefits for his own family—he became a virtual pariah among Unificationists, because he had engaged in a betrayal of trust.

More importantly yet, Hak Ja Han earned the love and respect of virtually all members as the dedicated and loyal wife of Rev. Moon, until she began—after Rev. Moon’s death—to transform the movement through propounding and promoting a new, self-serving OBD theology, alienating an ever larger number of members.

The example of Heung Jin Moon, the second son of Rev. Moon and his wife Hak Ja Han, is also relevant to this discussion. He won love and admiration from members because he joined them in fundraising and witnessing on the street, and in other ways showed a real concern for their wellbeing. Tragically, he died in January 1984 from a car accident the previous month, but lives on today as a saintly figure in the minds of many members.

Can the same be said of Preston Moon and Rev. Kwak? Will they be remembered in history as saintly figures? They and their followers might point to the good they are doing with the assets they control, but no supposed accomplishment built on ill-gotten means will be honored by history or contribute to building a durable Kingdom of Heaven on earth.

For the Unification Movement to succeed in its providential mission, it must be the home of Abel-type men and women, families and institutions. Members of the Moon family enjoy the blessings of their heritage through birth, and should be honored for that. But with those blessings come the mighty responsibility of demonstrating the Way of Abel as sons and daughters of their most Abel-type father. It was of this hope for his son Preston Moon that Rev. Moon spoke when appointing him deputy chairman of FFWPUI, in 1998:

My advice today to my son Hyun Jin is to please maintain a standard of absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience in front of God, in front of True Parents, in front of his spouse and in front of all the Family Federation members. In order to establish the completed foundation of the fourth Adam and the realm of the fourth Adam, Hyun Jin

Nim still has a course to go on the family level, clan level, tribal level and national level. Therefore, he has to apply his absolute standard of faith, love and obedience before everyone.32

It’s not too late for those who betrayed Rev. Moon to change course, especially while they remain on earth. But this means they must be willing to sacrifice their own wellbeing and comfort to serve the providence and the wider membership by giving their all now. This is the only way for the hearts of members to be healed and the deep classist and factional divisions within the movement to be dissolved.

Beyond these leaders fulfilling their responsibilities, individual members and families have to do likewise, on their level. They should not wait for their leaders to do the right thing, but take it upon themselves to organize their relationships and affiliations in an Abel-type manner that sets an Abel-type example for the world.

Most members have believed that the Church centered on Rev. Moon would naturally be the home for all those wanting to fulfil their individual responsibilities—while he remained on earth and beyond. Sadly, the deep divisions within the Moon family and among members loyal to one faction or the other, make this seem insurmountably difficult right now. Nevertheless the providence marches on, and it will always be true that each of us has the agency to fulfill his or her own responsibility within that providence. This is our ultimate legacy from Rev. Moon, the leading light of the providence today and the founder and father of the Unification Movement. _____________

1. UCI original Articles of Incorporation, 1977, p.7. 2. Transcript of Rev. Moon’s remarks on July 19, 1998, Today’s World, July, 1998, pp 4-7. 3. Declaration of Dr. Douglas Joo, Superior Court of the District of Colombia Civil Division, Case No. 2011 CA 003721B, April 26, 2012, Paragraphs 17,18. 4. Declaration of Dr. Douglas Joo, Superior Court of the District of Colombia Civil Division, Case No. 2011 CA 003721B, April 26, 2012, Paragraphs 15. 5. Testimony of Daniel Gray, November 10, 2017. 6. Excerpts from Transcript of January 12, 2009 UCI Board Meeting. 7. Excerpts from Transcript of January 12, 2009 UCI Board Meeting, p.8. 8. Excerpts from Transcript of January 12, 2009 UCI Board Meeting, p.13. 9. UCI Bylaws on January 11,2009, p.2. 10. Minutes of January 12 UCI board meeting, at 7am. 11. Declaration of Dr. Douglas Joo, Superior Court of the District of Colombia Civil Division, Case No. 2011 CA 003721B, April 26, 2012, Paragraph 21. 12. Filing in Superior Court of the District of Colombia Civil Division, Civil Action No. 0003721-11, May 11, 2011, p.15. 13. Ibid, p. 21. 14. UCI Articles, as revised on April 14, 2010, and come into force on May 13, 2010. 15. Videotaped Deposition of Richard Perea, Superior Court for the District of Columbia, Civil Division, Civil No. 2011 CA 003721B, March 8, 2018, pp.328, 392. 16. Videotaped Deposition of Richard Perea, Superior Court for the District of Columbia, Civil Division, Civil No. 2011 CA 003721B, March 8, 2018, p.324.

17. Videotaped Deposition of Richard Perea, Superior Court for the District of Columbia, Civil Division, Civil No. 2011 CA 003721B, March 8, 2018, p.353. 18. UCI Articles of Incorporation, 1977, pp 1,2. 19. UCI Articles, as revised on April 14, 2010, and come into force on May 13, 2010, p.2. 20. UCI Articles of Incorporation, 1977, p.3. 21. UCI Articles of Incorporation, 1977, p.5. 22. UCI Articles, as revised on April 14, 2010, and come into force on May 13, 2010, p.3. 23. Videotaped Deposition of Richard Perea, Superior Court for the District of Columbia, Civil Division, Civil No. 2011 CA 003721B, March 8, 2018, p.315. 24. Wikipedia article on Parc1. 25. Unsigned article, Reaching for the Stars, Forbes, July 16, 2012. 26. Jung Min-kyung, Seoul’s central bus terminal is high-end and glossy, but some miss humbler past, The Korea Herald, February 19, 2023. 27. Unsigned article, Shensegae to buy 60% stake in bus terminal operator, The Korea Times, October 17, 2012. 28. Donation Agreement between UCI, Landmark Investment Company, Inc., and Kingdom Investments Foundation, June 28, 2010. 29. Filing in Superior Court of the District of Colombia Civil Division, Civil Action No. 0003721-11, May 11, 2011, p.3. 30. Kwak, Chung Hwan, The Truth Shall Prevail: Understanding the Conflict Within the Unification Movement and Its Resolution, 2019, p. 324. 31. Ibid, p. 325. 32. Transcript of Rev. Moon’s remarks, July 19, 1998, Today’s World, July 1998.