THE MOON-BUSH CASH CONDUIT
Consortium News
By Robert Parry
June 14, 2006

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2006/061406.html

Over the past quarter century, South Korean theocrat Sun Myung Moon has been
one of the Bush family¹s major benefactors ­ both politically and
financially ­ while enjoying what appears to be protection against federal
investigations into evidence that his cult-like organization has functioned
as a criminal enterprise.

Indeed, the newest disclosure about Moon funneling money to a Bush family
entity bears many of the earmarks of Moon¹s business strategy of laundering
money through a complex maze of front companies and cut-outs so it can¹t be
easily followed. In this case, according to an article in the Houston
Chronicle, Moon¹s Washington Times Foundation gave $1 million to the Greater
Houston Community Foundation, which in turn acted as a conduit for donations
to the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library.

The Chronicle obtained indirect confirmation that Moon¹s money was passing
through the Houston foundation to the Bush library from Bush family
spokesman Jim McGrath. Asked whether Moon¹s $1 million had ended up there,
McGrath responded, ³We¹re in an uncomfortable position. Š If a donor doesn¹t
want to be identified we need to honor their privacy.²

But when asked whether the $1 million was intended to curry favor with the
Bush family to get President George W. Bush to grant a pardon for Moon¹s
1982 felony tax fraud conviction, McGrath answered, ³If that¹s why he gave
the grant, he¹s throwing his money away. Š That¹s not the way the Bushes
operate.²

McGrath then added, ³President Bush has been very grateful for the
friendship shown to him by the Washington Times Foundation, and the
Washington Times serves a vital role in Washington. But there can¹t be any
connection to any kind of a pardon.² [Houston Chronicle, June 8, 2006,
citing the work of private researcher Larry Zilliox.
<http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printstory.mpl/metropolitan/casey/3953506>]

But Moon has many other interests beyond clearing his criminal record with a
presidential pardon.

While it¹s true Moon has sought a pardon since the latter years of Ronald
Reagan¹s administration, Moon also has counted on powerful political
connections to shield his business activities from renewed federal
investigation that otherwise might have pried into criminal offenses ranging
from money laundering to evading the U.S. embargo on the rogue state of
North Korea.

Moon has achieved this remarkable insulation for his operations largely by
spreading around hundreds of millions of dollars for political activities,
charitable functions and the publication of one of Washington¹s daily
newspapers, the Washington Times.

The founder of the South Korean-based Unification Church has made himself
particularly useful to the Bush family and other prominent Republicans who
have returned the favor by speaking at his events, lavishing praise on his
business operations and granting him Capitol Hill space for some of his
ceremonies.

Bags of Cash

Faced with Moon¹s political clout, federal authorities have looked the other
way for more than two decades even when principals within Moon¹s
organization have made public declarations about its continuing criminal
practices.

For instance, Moon¹s former daughter-in-law, Nansook Hong, admitted to
participating in money-laundering schemes by personally smuggling cash from
South Korea into the United States. She also said she witnessed other cases
in which bags of cash were carried into the United States and delivered to
Moon¹s businesses.

Moon ³demonstrated contempt for U.S. law every time he accepted a paper bag
full of untraceable, undeclared cash collected from true believers² who
smuggled the money in from overseas, Nansook Hong wrote in her 1998 book, In
the Shadows of the Moons.

Nansook Hong¹s allegations were corroborated by other disaffected Moon
disciples in press interviews and in civil court proceedings.

Maria Madelene Pretorious, a former Unification Church member who worked at
Moon¹s Manhattan Center, a New York City music venue and recording studio,
testified at a court hearing in Massachusetts that in December of 1993 or
January of 1994, one of Moon¹s sons, Hyo Jin Moon, returned from a trip to
Korea ³with $600,000 in cash which he had received from his father. ...
Myself along with three or four other members that worked at Manhattan
Center saw the cash in bags, shopping bags.²

In an interview with me in the mid-1990s, Pretorious said Asian church
members would bring cash into the United States where it would be circulated
through Moon¹s business empire as a way to launder it. At the center of this
financial operation, Pretorious said, was One-Up Corp., a
Delaware-registered holding company that owned many Moon enterprises
including the Manhattan Center and New World Communications, the parent
company of the Washington Times.

³Once that cash is at the Manhattan Center, it has to be accounted for,²
Pretorious said. ³The way that¹s done is to launder the cash. Manhattan
Center gives cash to a business called Happy World which owns restaurants.
... Happy World needs to pay illegal aliens. ... Happy World pays some back
to the Manhattan Center for Œservices rendered.¹ The rest goes to One-Up and
then comes back to Manhattan Center as an investment.²

The lack of federal investigative interest in these admissions of guilt was
especially curious because evidence of Moon¹s money-laundering dated back to
the late 1970s when Moon¹s operations came under the scrutiny of a
congressional probe into a South Korean influence-buying plot called
³Koreagate.² Investigators discovered Moon¹s pattern of money transfers
emanating from mysterious sources in Asia and ending up funding media,
political, educational and religious activities in the United States.

By the early 1980s, that federal money-laundering probe had led to the
criminal charges against Moon for tax evasion, a prosecution that the new
Reagan-Bush Justice Department tried to derail but couldn¹t because it was
being handled by career prosecutors in New York City. Moon was convicted in
1982 and imprisoned for 13 months.

Buying Influence

But Moon¹s influence-buying operation was only just beginning.

He launched the Washington Times in 1982 and its staunch support for
Reagan-Bush political interests quickly made it a favorite of Reagan, Bush
and other influential Republicans. Moon also made sure that his steady flow
of cash found its way into the pockets of key conservative operatives,
especially when they were most in need, when they were facing financial
crises.

For instance, when the New Right¹s direct-mail whiz Richard Viguerie fell on
hard times in the late 1980s, Moon had a corporation run by a chief
lieutenant, Bo Hi Pak, buy one of Viguerie¹s properties for $10 million.
[See Orange County Register, Dec. 21, 1987; Washington Post, Oct. 15, 1989]

Moon also used the Washington Times and its affiliated publications to
create seemingly legitimate conduits to funnel money to individuals and
companies. In another example of Moon¹s largesse, the Washington Times hired
Viguerie to conduct a pricy direct-mail subscription drive, boosting his
profit margin.

Another case of saving a right-wing icon occurred when the Rev. Jerry
Falwell was facing financial ruin over the debts piling up at Liberty
University.

But the fundamentalist Christian school in Lynchburg, Va., got a last-minute
bail-out in the mid-1990s ostensibly from two Virginia businessmen, Dan
Reber and Jimmy Thomas, who used their non-profit Christian Heritage
Foundation to snap up a large chunk of Liberty¹s debt for $2.5 million, a
fraction of its face value.

Falwell rejoiced and called the moment ³the greatest single day of financial
advantage² in the school¹s history, even though it was accomplished at the
disadvantage of many small true-believing investors who had bought the
church construction bonds through a Texas company.

But Falwell¹s secret benefactor behind the debt purchase was Sun Myung Moon,
who was kept in the background partly because of his controversial Biblical
interpretations that hold Jesus to have been a failure and because of Moon¹s
alleged brainwashing of thousands of young Americans, often shattering their
bonds with their biological families.

Moon had used his tax-exempt Women¹s Federation for World Peace to funnel
$3.5 million to the Reber-Thomas Christian Heritage Foundation, the
non-profit that purchased the school¹s debt. I stumbled onto this
Moon-Falwell connection by examining the Internal Revenue Service filings of
Moon¹s front groups.

The Women Federation¹s vice president Susan Fefferman confirmed that the
$3.5 million grant had gone to ³Mr. Falwell¹s people² for the benefit of
Liberty University. The indirect funneling of money to Falwell¹s school
paralleled the technique used a decade later to donate funds to George H.W.
Bush¹s presidential library. [For more on Moon¹s funding of the Right, see
Robert Parry¹s Secrecy & Privilege. <http://www.secrecyandprivilege.com/>]

Bush Speeches

Moon also used the Women¹s Federation to pay substantial speaking fees to
George H.W. Bush, who gave talks at Moon-sponsored events. In September
1995, Bush and his wife, Barbara, gave six speeches in Asia for the Women¹s
Federation. In one speech on Sept. 14 to 50,000 Moon supporters in Tokyo,
Bush said ³what really counts is faith, family and friends.²

Moon¹s wife, Hak Ja Han Moon, followed the ex-President and announced that
³it has to be Reverend Moon to save the United States, which is in decline
because of the destruction of the family and moral decay.² [Washington Post,
Sept. 15, 1995]

In summer 1996, Bush was lending his prestige to Moon again. Bush addressed
the Moon-connected Family Federation for World Peace in Washington, an event
that gained notoriety when comedian Bill Cosby tried to back out of his
contract after learning of Moon¹s connection. Bush had no such qualms.
[Washington Post, July 30, 1996]

In fall 1996, Moon needed the ex-President¹s help again. Moon was trying to
replicate his Washington Times influence in South America by opening a
regional newspaper, Tiempos del Mundo. But South American journalists were
recounting unsavory chapters of Moon¹s history, including his links to South
Korea¹s feared intelligence service and various neo-fascist organizations.

In the early 1980s, Moon had used friendships with the military
dictatorships in Argentina and Uruguay ­ which had been responsible for tens
of thousands of political murders ­ to invest in those two countries. There
also were allegations of Moon¹s links to the region¹s major drug
traffickers. [For details on the drug ties, see Robert Parry¹s Lost History.
<http://www.secrecyandprivilege.com/>]

Heaven Sent

Moon¹s disciples fumed about the critical stories and accused the Argentine
news media of trying to sabotage Moon¹s plans for an inaugural gala in
Buenos Aires on Nov. 23, 1996. ³The local press was trying to undermine the
event,² complained the church¹s internal newsletter, Unification News.

Given the controversy, Argentina¹s elected president, Carlos Menem, decided
to reject Moon¹s invitation.

But Moon had a trump card: the endorsement of an ex-President of the United
States, George H.W. Bush. Agreeing to speak at the newspaper¹s launch, Bush
flew aboard a private plane, arriving in Buenos Aires on Nov. 22. Bush
stayed at Menem¹s official residence, the Olivos.

As the headliner at the newspaper¹s inaugural gala, Bush saved the day,
Moon¹s followers gushed. ³Mr. Bush¹s presence as keynote speaker gave the
event invaluable prestige,² wrote the Unification News. ³Father [Moon] and
Mother [Mrs. Moon] sat with several of the True Children [Moon¹s offspring]
just a few feet from the podium² where Bush spoke.

³I want to salute Reverend Moon,² Bush declared. ³A lot of my friends in
South America don¹t know about the Washington Times, but it is an
independent voice. The editors of the Washington Times tell me that never
once has the man with the vision [Moon] interfered with the running of the
paper, a paper that in my view brings sanity to Washington, D.C.²

Bush¹s speech was so effusive that it surprised even Moon¹s followers. ³Once
again, heaven turned a disappointment into a victory,² the Unification News
exulted. ³Everyone was delighted to hear his compliments. We knew he would
give an appropriate and Œnice¹ speech, but praise in Father¹s presence was
more than we expected. ... It was vindication. We could just hear a sigh of
relief from Heaven.²

While Bush¹s assertion about Moon¹s Washington Times as a voice of ³sanity²
may be a matter of opinion, Bush¹s vouching for its editorial independence
simply wasn¹t true. Almost since it opened in 1982, a string of senior
editors and correspondents have resigned, citing the manipulation of the
news by Moon and his subordinates. The first editor, James Whelan, resigned
in 1984, confessing that ³I have blood on my hands² for helping Moon¹s
church achieve greater legitimacy.

Ties That Bind

But Bush¹s boosterism was just what Moon needed in South America. ³The day
after,² the Unification News observed, ³the press did a 180-degree
about-turn once they realized that the event had the support of a U.S.
President.² With Bush¹s help, Moon had gained another beachhead for his
worldwide business-religious-political-media empire.

After the event, Menem told reporters from La Nacion that Bush had claimed
privately to be only a mercenary who did not really know Moon. ³Bush told me
he came and charged money to do it,² Menem said. [La Nacion, Nov. 26, 1996]

But Bush was not telling Menem the whole story. By fall 1996, Bush and Moon
had been working in political tandem for at least a decade and a half. The
ex-President also had been earning huge speaking fees as a front man for
Moon for more than a year.

Throughout these public appearances for Moon, Bush¹s office refused to
divulge how much Moon-affiliated organizations have paid the ex-President.
But estimates of Bush¹s fee for the Buenos Aires appearance alone ran
between $100,000 and $500,000. Sources close to the Unification Church told
me that the total spending on Bush ran into the millions, with one source
telling me that Bush stood to make as much as $10 million from Moon¹s
organization.

The senior George Bush may have had a political motive, too. By 1996,
sources close to Bush were saying the ex-President was working hard to
enlist well-to-do conservatives and their money behind the presidential
candidacy of his son, George W. Bush. Moon was one of the deepest pockets in
right-wing circles.

North Korean Cash

Moon, who has the status of a U.S. permanent resident alien, has skirted
other federal laws, including prohibitions on financial relations with the
hard-line communist government of North Korea.

Despite Moon¹s history of extreme anti-communism, Moon began spreading money
around inside North Korea ­ much as he has in other countries ­ while
seeking business advantages during the first Bush administration, according
to U.S. intelligence documents.

U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency documents, which I obtained under a Freedom
of Information Act request, showed Moon¹s organization paying millions of
dollars to North Korean leaders. The payments included a $3 million
³birthday present² to current communist leader Kim Jong Il and offshore
payments amounting to ³several tens of million dollars² to the previous
communist dictator, Kim Il Sung, the partially declassified documents said.

Yet, in the 1990s, while Moon was passing out money, North Korea was
scrambling for the resources to develop missiles and other advanced
weaponry, including a nuclear weapons capability. Moon¹s activities
attracted the attention of the Defense Intelligence Agency because it is
responsible for monitoring potential military threats to the United States.

Moon negotiated one North Korean business deal in 1991, after face-to-face
meetings with Kim Il Sung, the longtime communist leader, the DIA documents
said.

³These talks took place secretly, without the knowledge of the South Korean
government,² the DIA wrote on Feb. 2, 1994. ³In the original deal with Kim
[Il Sung], Moon paid several tens of million dollars as a down-payment into
an overseas account,² the DIA said in a cable dated Aug. 14, 1994.

The DIA said Moon's organization also delivered money to Kim Il Sung's son
and successor, Kim Jong Il.

³In 1993, the Unification Church sold a piece of property located in
Pennsylvania,² the DIA reported on Sept. 9, 1994. ³The profit on the sale,
approximately $3 million was sent through a bank in China to the Hong Kong
branch of the KS [South Korean] company ŒSamsung Group.¹ The money was later
presented to Kim Jung Il [Kim Jong Il] as a birthday present.²

After Kim Il Sung's death in 1994 and his succession by his son, Kim Jong
Il, Moon dispatched his longtime aide, Bo Hi Pak, to ensure that the
business deals were still on track with Kim Jong Il ³and his coterie,² the
DIA reported.

³If necessary, Moon authorized Pak to deposit a second payment for Kim Jong
Il,² the DIA wrote.

The DIA declined to elaborate on the documents. ³As for the documents you
have, you have to draw your own conclusions,² said DIA spokesman, U.S. Navy
Capt. Michael Stainbrook. [To see two of the DIA documents, click here
<http://www.consortiumnews.com/moondocs/index.html>]

Contacted in Seoul, South Korea, Bo Hi Pak, a former publisher of the
Washington Times, denied that payments were made to individual North Korean
leaders and called ³absolutely untrue² the DIA¹s description of the $3
million land sale benefiting Kim Jong Il. But Bo Hi Pak acknowledged that
Moon met with North Korean officials and negotiated business deals with them
in the early 1990s. Pak said the North Korean business investments were
structured through South Korean entities.

³Reverend Moon is not doing this in his own name,² Pak said.

Pak said he went to North Korea in 1994, after Kim Il Sung¹s death, only to
express ³condolences² to Kim Jong Il on behalf of Moon and his wife. Pak
denied that another purpose of the trip was to pass money to Kim Jong Il or
to his associates.

Asked about the seeming contradiction between Moon¹s avowed anti-communism
and his friendship with leaders of a communist state, Pak said, ³This is
time for reconciliation. We're not looking at ideological differences. We
are trying to help them out² with food and other humanitarian needs.

Samsung officials said they could find no information in their files about
the alleged $3 million payment.

Embargo Busting

North Korean officials clearly valued their relationship with Moon. In
February 2000, on Moon¹s 80th birthday, Kim Jong Il sent Moon a gift of
rare wild ginseng, an aromatic root used medicinally, Reuters reported.

Because of the long-term U.S. embargo against North Korea ­ eased only in
2000 ­ Moon¹s alleged payments to the communist leaders raised potential
legal issues for Moon especially if some of the money stemmed from a land
sale in Pennsylvania.

³Nobody in the United States was supposed to be providing funding to
anybody in North Korea, period, under the Treasury (Department's) sanction
regime,² said Jonathan Winer, former deputy assistant secretary of state
handling international crime.

The U.S. embargo of North Korea dated back to the Korean War. With a few
exceptions for humanitarian goods, the embargo barred trade and financial
dealings between North Korea and ³all U.S. citizens and permanent residents
wherever they are located, Š and all branches, subsidiaries and controlled
affiliates of U.S. organizations throughout the world.²

Moon became a permanent resident of the United States in 1973, according to
Justice Department records. When interviewed in 2000, Bo Hi Pak said Moon
had kept his ³green card² status. Though often in South Korea and South
America, Moon maintained a residence near Tarrytown, north of New York City,
and controlled dozens of affiliated U.S. companies.

Direct payments to foreign leaders in connection with business deals also
could prompt questions about possible violations of the U.S. Corrupt
Practices Act, a prohibition against overseas bribery.

Ironically, although Moon reportedly gave North Korea desperately needed
foreign capital, Moon¹s Washington Times attacked the Clinton administration
for failing to take a more aggressive stand against North Korea¹s missile
program. The newspaper called the administration¹s policy an ³abdication of
responsibility for national security.²

Moon also was consolidating his influence with American conservatives as he
was growing increasingly anti-American. While former President Bush was
hailing Moon in public in the mid-1990s, Moon was calling the United States
³Satan¹s harvest² and claiming that American women descended from a ³line of
prostitutes.²

But Moon understood one basic rule of politics that applied the world over:
money talks. He knew he could get politicians to do his bidding if the
bribes were big enough. In one sermon on Jan. 2, 1996, Moon was unusually
blunt about how he expected his wealth to buy influence among the powerful
in South America, just as it had in Washington.

³Father has been practicing the philosophy of fishing here,² Moon said,
through an interpreter who spoke of Moon in the third person. ³He [Moon]
gave the bait to Uruguay and then the bigger fish of Argentina, Brazil and
Paraguay kept their mouths open, waiting for a bigger bait silently. The
bigger the fish, the bigger the mouth. Therefore, Father is able to hook
them more easily.²

For Moon, there has been no bigger fish than the powerful Bush family and
its many friends in the U.S. government.

............

Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the
Associated Press and Newsweek. His latest book, Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of
the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq, can be ordered at
secrecyandprivilege.com. It's also available at Amazon.com, as is his 1999
book, Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & 'Project Truth.'