United States v. Sun Myung Moon

Last updated

In 1984, Sun Myung Moon, the founder and leader of the Unification Church, was charged with willfully filing false federal income tax returns and conspiracy. Church members and supporters stated that the prosecution was politically motivated, discriminatory, and unfair.

Contents

He was imprisoned in the United States after being found guilty by a jury, but given early release due to good behavior.

Trial and appeal

On October 15, 1981, [1] Moon was indicted by a federal grand jury and charged with three counts of willfully filing false federal income tax returns (for the years 1973, 1974, and 1975) under 26 U.S.C.   § 7206, and one count of conspiracy—under 18 U.S.C.   § 371—to file false income tax returns, to obstruct justice, to make false statements to government officials, and to make false statements to a grand jury. The prosecutors charged that Moon failed to declare as income (and pay taxes on) $112,000 in earned interest in a Chase Manhattan bank account, and on the receipt of $50,000 of corporate stock. The essence of the prosecution's case was that both the money and stock were his personal property. The defense maintained that these were rather being held on behalf of the fledgling church, which had not yet incorporated. Moon transferred the bulk of the Chase account funds to the fledgling church upon its incorporation. He did not declare this transfer as a deduction on his income tax.

Holding church funds in a minister's name is fairly common, particularly in small churches, and some church-related or other organizations filed amicus curiae briefs in the case, including the Center for Law and Religious Freedom, the American Civil Liberties Union, the New York Civil Liberties Union, American Baptist Churches in the USA, [2] the National Council of Churches, the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the National Conference of Black Mayors, and the National Bar Association. [3]

The court denied Moon's request to have a bench trial. [4] In 1982 he was convicted on all counts and the convictions were upheld on appeal. [5] Moon was represented in his appeal by Laurence Tribe, noted constitutional lawyer and law professor. [6]

Sentence

Moon was given an 18-month sentence and a $15,000 fine. He served 13 months of the sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution, Danbury and because of good behavior was released to a halfway house before returning home. While serving his sentence he worked in the prison kitchen. [7]

Takeru Kamiyama, Moon's aide and codefendant in the trial, was convicted of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and perjury and was sentenced to six months imprisonment which he served at Danbury along with Moon. [8]

Kenneth Briggs, former religion editor of the New York Times , wrote:

Later, the group's founder, the Rev. Sun-Myung Moon, was jailed on questionable allegations, and he took his punishment in a Connecticut prison with exemplary forbearance. [9]

Commentary and protests

While Moon was in prison, members of the Unification Church of the United States launched a public-relations campaign. Booklets, letters and videotapes were mailed to approximately 300,000 Christian leaders in the United States. Many signed petitions protesting the government's case. [10] Among the American Christian leaders who spoke out in defense of Moon were conservative Jerry Falwell, head of Moral Majority, and liberal Joseph Lowery, head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. [11] Among the other people who protested the government's prosecution of Moon were Harvey Cox, a Professor of Divinity at Harvard and Eugene McCarthy, United States Senator and former Democratic Party presidential candidate. [12]

Supporters regard the tax case as politically motivated. The prosecutors offered to drop the case in return for Moon surrendering his green card, which he chose not to do.[ citation needed ]

A United States Senate subcommittee, chaired by Senator Orrin Hatch, conducted its own investigation into Moon's tax case and published its findings in a report which concluded:

We accused a newcomer to our shores of criminal and intentional wrongdoing for conduct commonly engaged in by a large percentage of our own religious leaders, namely, the holding of church funds in bank accounts in their own names. Catholic priests do it. Baptist ministers do it, and so did Sun Myung Moon.
No matter how we view it, it remains a fact that we charged a non-English-speaking alien with criminal tax evasion [13] on the first tax returns he filed in this country. It appears that we didn't give him a fair chance to understand our laws. We didn't seek a civil penalty as an initial means of redress. We didn't give him the benefit of any doubt. Rather, we took a novel theory of tax liability of less than $10,000 and turned it into a guilty verdict and eighteen months in a federal prison.
I do feel strongly, after my subcommittee has carefully and objectively reviewed this case from both sides, that injustice rather than justice has been served. The Moon case sends a strong signal that if one's views are unpopular enough, this country will find a way not to tolerate, but to convict. I don't believe that you or I or anyone else, no matter how innocent, could realistically prevail against the combined forces of our Justice Department and judicial branch in a case such as Reverend Moon's. [14]

Jeremiah S. Gutman, president of the New York Civil Liberties Union, called the prosecution "an indefensible intrusion in private religious affairs." [15] The New York Times and the Washington Post , which had both been critical of Moon, expressed concern about the government's prosecution of him and the consequences it might have for other religious groups. [16]

Michael Tori, a professor at Marist College (Poughkeepsie, New York) suggested that Moon's conviction helped the Unification Church gain more acceptance in mainstream American society, since it showed that he was financially accountable to the government and the public. [17]

In 1991 Pulitzer-prize winning reporter Carlton Sherwood wrote a book in Moon's defense, Inquisition: The Persecution and Prosecution of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon . Sherwood mentions opposition to Moon by the news media, major Christian denominations, and members of the government including Representative Donald Fraser and Senator Bob Dole. Sherwood characterizes this opposition as unfair, dishonest, and mean-spirited. He concludes that the federal prosecution of Moon on tax charges was unjust, citing the court's refusal to allow Moon's fellow defendant Takeru Kamiyama to provide his own translator, its refusal to allow the two men a bench trial rather than a jury trial, possible tainting of the jury, and the unusual length of Moon's sentence, 18 months, for a tax case. He also mentions that Moon could have avoided the trial if he had remained outside of the United States. [18] [19]

Sherwood sums up his views by writing:

The Unification Church, its leaders and followers were and continue to be the victims of the worst kind of religious prejudice and racial bigotry this country has witnessed in over a century. Moreover, virtually every institution we as Americans hold sacred the Congress, the courts, law enforcement agencies, the press, even the US Constitution itself was prostituted in a malicious, oftentimes brutal manner, as part of a determined effort to wipe out this small but expanding religious movement. [18] [19] [20] [21]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sun Myung Moon</span> Korean religious leader (1920–2012)

Sun Myung Moon was a Korean religious leader, also known for his business ventures and support for conservative political causes. A messiah claimant, he was the founder of the Unification Church, whose members consider him and his wife Hak Ja Han to be their "True Parents", and of its widely noted "Blessing" or mass wedding ceremonies. The author of the Unification Church's religious scripture, the Divine Principle, was an anti-communist and an advocate for Korean reunification, for which he was recognized by the governments of both North and South Korea. Businesses he promoted included News World Communications, an international news media corporation known for its American subsidiary The Washington Times, and Tongil Group, a South Korean business group (chaebol), as well as other related organizations.

Bo Hi Pak was a prominent member of the Unification Church. During the 1970s and 1980s, he was a major leader in the church movement, leading projects such as newspapers, schools, performing arts projects, political projects such as the anti-communist organization CAUSA International, and was president of the Unification Church International 1977–1991. He was also the president of Little Angels Children's Folk Ballet of Korea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unification Church</span> International new religious movement

The Unification Church is a new religious movement derived from Christianity, whose members are called Unificationists or sometimes informally Moonies. It was founded in 1954 by Sun Myung Moon in Seoul, South Korea, as the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity ; in 1994, the organization changed its name to the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification. It has a presence in approximately 100 countries around the world. Its leaders are Moon and his wife, Hak Ja Han, whom their followers honor with the title "True Parents."

Roger Christie is an American ordained minister in the Religion of Jesus Church, which regards marijuana as a "sacramental herb." In 2000, he founded the THC Ministry, which offered cannabis as a part of its services. On July 8, 2010, Christie and 13 other individuals associated with the THC Ministry were indicted by a Federal grand jury in Honolulu on marijuana possession and trafficking charges. On Sept. 27, 2013, Christie pleaded guilty to marijuana trafficking and two counts of failing to file income tax returns. On April 28, 2014, Christie was sentenced to a term of five years in federal prison, with credit for time already served at the Honolulu Federal Detention Center.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LaRouche criminal trials</span> 1980s United States state and federal fraud trials

The LaRouche criminal trials in the mid-1980s stemmed from federal and state investigations into the activities of American political activist Lyndon LaRouche and members of his movement. They were charged with conspiring to commit fraud and soliciting loans they had no intention of repaying. LaRouche and his supporters disputed the charges, claiming the trials were politically motivated.

Carlton Alex Sherwood was an American journalist who produced the anti-John Kerry film Stolen Honor. Sherwood served on two news teams which were responsible for the award of the Pulitzer Prize and the Peabody Award to their organizations.

Galen G. Kelly is a "deprogrammer", associated with the Cult Awareness Network. He served as CAN's "security advisor." Prior to this he was a director for the Citizens' Freedom Foundation, a precursor to the CAN. Kelly was raised in Accord, New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Irwin Schiff</span> American activist (1928–2015)

Irwin Allen Schiff was an American libertarian and tax resistance advocate known for writing and promoting literature in which he argued that the way in which the income tax in the United States is enforced upon individuals, as a tax on one's time or wages, is illegal and unconstitutional. Judges in several civil and criminal cases ruled in favor of the federal government and against Schiff. As a result of these judicial rulings Schiff was in a hospital prison serving a sentence of 162 months at the time of his death.

<i>Inquisition: The Persecution and Prosecution of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon</i> 1991 book by Carlton Sherwood

Inquisition: The Persecution and Prosecution of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon is a 1991 book by Carlton Sherwood about the early 1980s investigation and trial of Sun Myung Moon, the leader of the Unification Church, for alleged violations of United States tax law. The book, subtitled The Persecution and Prosecution of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, alleges that there were elements of racism and religious persecution in the prosecution of the Moon case. The book was published by Regnery Publishing, an American publisher which specializes in conservative books.

Cheek v. United States, 498 U.S. 192 (1991), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court reversed the conviction of John L. Cheek, a tax protester, for willful failure to file tax returns and tax evasion, who was convicted again during retrial. The Court held that an actual good-faith belief that one is not violating the tax law, based on a misunderstanding caused by the complexity of the tax law, negates willfulness, even if that belief is irrational or unreasonable. The Court also ruled that an actual belief that the tax law is invalid or unconstitutional is not a good faith belief based on a misunderstanding caused by the complexity of the tax law, and is not a defense.

A tax protester, in the United States, is a person who denies that he or she owes a tax based on the belief that the Constitution of the United States, statutes, or regulations do not empower the government to impose, assess or collect the tax. The tax protester may have no dispute with how the government spends its revenue. This differentiates a tax protester from a tax resister, who seeks to avoid paying a tax because the tax is being used for purposes with which the resister takes issue.

Eddie Ray Kahn is an American tax protester. Kahn was imprisoned for tax crimes and was released on January 5, 2021. Kahn founded the group American Rights Litigators and ran the for-profit businesses "Guiding Light of God Ministries" and "Eddie Kahn and Associates." According to the U.S. Justice Department, all three organizations are or were illegal tax evasion operations.

Tommy Keith Cryer, also known as Tom Cryer, was an attorney in Shreveport, Louisiana who was charged with and later acquitted of willful failure to file U.S. Federal income tax returns in a timely fashion. In a case in United States Tax Court, Cryer contested a determination by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service that he owed $1.7 million in taxes and penalties. Before the case could come to trial, Cryer died June 4, 2012. He was 62.

The 861 argument is a statutory argument used by tax protesters in the United States, which interprets a portion of the Internal Revenue Code as invalidating certain applications of income tax. The argument has uniformly been held by courts to be incorrect, and persons who have cited the argument as a basis for refusing to pay income taxes have been penalized, and in some cases jailed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unification Church of the United States</span> Religious movement in the United States

The Unification Church of the United States is the branch of the Unification Church in the United States. It began in the late 1950s and early 1960s when missionaries from South Korea were sent to America by the international Unification Church's founder and leader Sun Myung Moon. It expanded in the 1970s and then became involved in controversy due to its theology, its political activism, and the lifestyle of its members. Since then, it has been involved in many areas of American society and has established businesses, news media, projects in education and the arts, as well as taking part in political and social activism, and has itself gone through substantial changes.

A tax protester is someone who refuses to pay a tax claiming that the tax laws are unconstitutional or otherwise invalid. Tax protesters are different from tax resisters, who refuse to pay taxes as a protest against a government or its policies, or a moral opposition to taxation in general, not out of a belief that the tax law itself is invalid. The United States has a large and organized culture of people who espouse such theories. Tax protesters also exist in other countries.

Guardians of the Free Republics, active around 2010, was a group based in the U.S. state of Texas regarded as being part of the sovereign citizen movement. The group was associated with Sam Kennedy, a talk-show host, and with Clive Boustred, a British-born conspiracy theorist living in California. The group was described as having an anti-government ideology.

Glasser v. United States, 315 U.S. 60 (1942), was a landmark decision of the US Supreme Court on two issues of constitutional criminal procedure. Glasser was the first Supreme Court decision to hold that the Assistance of Counsel Clause of the Sixth Amendment required the reversal of a criminal defendant's conviction if his lawyer's representation of him was limited by a conflict of interest.

<i>United States v. Snider</i>

United States v. Snider, 502 F.2d 645 (1972) was a case before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. It was a consolidation of two separate cases: the first was a conviction for violation of 26 U.S.C. §7205, which prohibits submitting fraudulent tax information to an employer. The second was a conviction for violation of 18 U.S.C. §401, which prohibits "misbehavior ... as to obstruct the administration of justice."

References

  1. ↑ "Rev. Moon Indicted On Tax Charges", Pittsburgh Press, October 15, 1981, p1
  2. ↑ See United States v. Moon, 718 F.2d 1210, 83-2 U.S. Tax Cas. (CCH) paragr. 9581 (2d Cir. 1983), cert. denied, 466 U.S. 971, 104 S. Ct. 2344 (1984) (headnote).
  3. ↑ Raspberry, William, "Did Unpopular Moonie Get a Fair Trial?", Washington Post , April 19, 1984
  4. ↑ See generally United States v. Moon, 718 F.2d 1210 (2d Cir. 1983) cert. denied, 466 U.S. 971, 104 S. Ct. 2344 (1984), at .
  5. ↑ "The Rev Sun Myung Moon".
  6. ↑ Carlton Sherwood, Inquisition: The Persecution and Prosecution of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon , Regnery Publishing, 1991, 0-89526-532-X, pages 384-386
  7. ↑ Moon's Japanese Profits Bolster Efforts in U.S. Washington Post September 16, 2008
  8. ↑ Moon Conviction Upheld by Court, New York Times , September 14, 1983
  9. ↑ Beliefnet.com
  10. ↑ The Unification Church Aims a Major Public Relations Effort at Christian Leaders Christianity Today April 19, 1985.
  11. ↑ Introvigne, Massimo, 2000, The Unification Church Studies in Contemporary Religion, Signature Books, Salt Lake City, Utah, ISBN   1-56085-145-7, excerpt Archived May 13, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  12. ↑ Moon's financial rise and fall, Harvard Crimson , October 11, 1984
  13. ↑ As noted above, the court record differs from Senator Hatch's assertion regarding "tax evasion," as Reverend Moon was charged with and convicted only of willfully filing false returns and conspiracy.
  14. ↑ "Rev. & Mrs. Moon". Archived from the original on March 6, 2016. Retrieved February 10, 2024.
  15. ↑ Robert Parry, 1 October 1998, consortiumnews.com, Moon’s Dark Shadow
  16. ↑ Introvigne, 2000 p25
  17. ↑ Church urges Christian unity: Valley seminary open since 1975 Poughkeepsie Journal, 2003-12-11 "Michael Tori, a professor in Marist College's religious studies program, said the Unification Church has gained more acceptance in mainstream society for several reasons. One reason was Moon's indictment in the early 1980s for tax evasion. The indictment showed Moon was financially accountable to the government and to the public, Tori said. Another reason the church has gained greater acceptance is that it has taken on several universally accepted causes such as the importance of family values in society and the formation of the Interreligious and International Peace Council. The church has also given financial support to institutions such as the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut and made acquisitions such as the purchase of the Washington Times.""
  18. 1 2 Review, J. Isamu Yamamoto and Paul Carden, Christian Research Institute Journal, Fall 1992, page 32
  19. 1 2 Shooting for the Moon, Dean M. Kelley, First Things, October 1991
  20. ↑ Review, Candadai Seshachari, Weber Journal, Fall 1992
  21. ↑ Sherwood, Carlton (1991). "The story unfolds". Inquisition: the persecution and prosecution of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon. Washington, D.C.: Regnery Gateway. pp. 24–25. ISBN   978-0-89526-532-6.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.