Also, by keeping the names of the participants censored when the documents finally were released in 1998, the CIA prevented outside investigators from examining whether the "U.S. religious organization" had any affiliation with Moon's network of quasi-religious groups, which were assisting the contras at that time.
Studied Disinterest
Over the past quarter century as Moon invested heavily in prominent Republicans this pattern of government disinterest in his illicit operations remained one consistency. That disinterest wasn't even shaken when disenchanted Moon insiders went public with confessions of their own first-hand involvement in criminal conspiracies.
Besides Nansook Hong's account of money-laundering, other disaffected Moon disciples told similar stories.
For instance, Maria Madelene Pretorious, a former Unification Church member who worked at Moon's 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 Moon's sons, Hyo Jin Moon, returned from a trip to Korea "with $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."
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 Moon's business entities 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.
"Once that cash is at the Manhattan Center, it has to be accounted
for," Pretorious said. "The way that's 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 "services rendered.'
The rest goes to One-Up and then comes back to Manhattan Center as an
investment."
In 1996, the Uruguayan bank employees union blew the whistle on another Moon money-laundering scheme, in which some 4,200 female Japanese followers allegedly walked into the Moon-controlled Banco de Credito in Montevideo and deposited as much as $25,000 each.
The money from the women went into the account of an anonymous association called Cami II, which was controlled by Moon's Unification Church. In one day, Cami II received $19 million and, by the time the parade of women ended, the total had swelled to about $80 million.
It was not clear where the money originated, nor how many other times Moon's organization has used this tactic known as "smurfing" to transfer untraceable cash into Uruguay.
Authorities did not push the money-laundering investigation, apparently out of deference to Moon's political clout and fear of disrupting Uruguay's banking industry. However, other critics condemned Moon's operations.
"The first thing we ought to do is clarify to the people [of Uruguay] that Moon's sect is a type of modern pirate that came to the country to perform obscure money operations, such as money laundering," said Jorge Zabalza, who was a leader of the Movimiento de Participacion Popular. "This sect is a kind of religious mob that is trying to get public support to pursue its business."
While Moon's criminal enterprises may have been operating at one level, Moon's political influence-buying was functioning at another, as he spread around billions of dollars to the top echelons of Washington power.
For instance, when the New Right's direct-mail whiz Richard Viguerie fell on hard times in the late 1980s, Moon had a corporation run by his lieutenant, Bo Hi Pak, buy one of Viguerie's properties for $10 million. [See Orange County Register, Dec. 21, 1987; Washington Post, Oct. 15, 1989]
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