Investigators have arrested Park Bo-hui, a subordinate of Rev. Moon Sun-myung of the Unification Church, on fraud charges, the prosecution said Wednesday.
In exchange for 2 billion won, Park promised to help a realtor with the family name Yang win a contract for apartment construction within the site of a plant owned by the Ilhwa Co. in Kuri last December.
However, the 74-year-old former head of the Korean Cultural Foundation failed to keep his promise. Ilhwa Co., whose 49 percent of stocks are possessed by the Unification Church, was placed under court receivership.
“Park is just a layman of the Unification Church and the crime is not related to us,” a Unification Church official said.
According to the prosecution, Park returned 1.3 billion to Yang and pledged to pay back the remaining sum after inducing foreign capitals. But the prosecution arrested him after concluding Park is not able to carry out the pledge.
Park founded the Little Angels art troupe in 1962 and visited Pyongyang with Rev. Moon in 1991. Just after Kim Il-sung died in 1994, he stirred trouble by revisiting Pyongyang without the government’s permission to pay tribute to the former leader of North Korea.