The Seoul High Court sentenced former Unification Church official Yun Young-ho to one year and six months in prison on Monday for embezzling church funds intended as bribes for key political figures, including former first lady Kim Keon Hee.
The sentence was heavier than the one-year, two-month imprisonment he received from a lower court in January.
The appellate court upheld the lower court’s finding that Yun provided Kim with a luxury necklace and a Chanel handbag worth 12.7 million won ($8,600) in an effort to advance the church’s policy interests.
It also found Yun guilty of giving 100 million won to Rep. Kweon Seong-dong, then floor leader of the People Power Party.
The court, however, overturned the lower court’s acquittal of Yun on charges of embezzling church funds to purchase another Chanel handbag given to Kim in April 2022. The lower court had ruled that Yun did not intend to obtain the funds illegally.
At the time the bag was given, Yoon Suk Yeol had not yet taken office as president, meaning Kim was not yet the spouse of a public official. The lower court had therefore found that the gift did not violate the anti-graft law and that the use of church funds in connection with it was not unlawful.
But the appellate court disagreed, saying there was “no fundamental difference in illegality” between using a religious organization’s funds to give a gift to the spouse of a president-elect in exchange for favors and doing so after the president had taken office.
In explaining the heavier sentence, the court said Yun’s crime was serious because it “undermined the constitutional value of separation of religion and state” and involved “the spouse of the president, for whom transparency is especially important.”
However, the court added that Yun had cooperated sincerely with investigators and given testimony consistent with the facts within the scope of his knowledge, despite “tangible and intangible pressure” from the church.
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