CultNEWS101 Articles: 12/22/2025

[Patrick Ryan]

764, Unification Church, Legal

LA Times: U.S. indictment alleges child sex abuse ring

" ... Through their investigation, the federal agents learned that members of CVLT and 764 were building status by getting minors to carve their names into their skin and sharing their collections of “cut signs” in group chats and servers.

As they pored over the gruesome images of disfigured teenage girls, Cushing and Jacobson realized they were not dealing with a standard child sexual abuse case.

“The level of collaboration, the level of technical sophistication and just the physical harm they were causing minors, coupled with child sexual abuse material.... That’s why we started dedicating significant effort into disassembling [CVLT],” Cushing said.

The ideology of CVLT and the splinter group 764 blends pedophilia with elements of neo-Nazism, nihilism, sadism and chauvinism, he said in an interview.

CVLT victims were coerced into performing dehumanizing acts like cutting and eating their own hair or referring to themselves as slaves, according to the indictment.

“Some of [the perpetrators] are genuine pedophiles with a sexual interest in children,” Cushing said. “Some of them do have a deeper philosophy that is interested in controlling people.”

Members use extreme content to desensitize children to the point that they are easily manipulated into performing acts of self-harm, according to Cushing. This included displaying videos of animals being tortured to death and women being raped, according to the indictment."

Korea JoonAng: Police raid Unification Church headquarters, nine other sites over political bribery allegations

"Police launched a series of raids Monday on 10 locations linked to the Unification Church, including its headquarters, Cheon Jeong Palace, as part of an investigation into allegations that the church provided illicit support to political figures."

" ... "Targets of the raids included the church’s Seoul headquarters in Yongsan District, central Seoul; the National Assembly office and residence of liberal Democratic Party (DP) Rep. Chun Jae-soo, a former oceans minister; and the homes of former DP lawmaker Lim Jong-seong and former conservative United Future Party lawmaker Kim Gyu-hwan.

 

Church leader Han Hak-ja and Yun Young-ho, former head of the Unification Church’s world headquarters and key figures in the case, have been booked as bribery suspects. Seoul Detention Center, where they are being held, was also searched. Police also included the office of the special counsel team investigating former first lady Kim Keon Hee, which had previously handled related case files, among the targets of the search.

 

Investigators have deployed a large number of officers to secure accounting records and other financial documents from the church, focusing on tracing money flows and determining whether alleged bribes were actually delivered.

 

The raids came five days after police formally assembled a dedicated investigation team last Wednesday. Investigators worked through the weekend reviewing case records and coordinating witness summons to accelerate the probe.

At the center of the allegations is whether the Unification Church provided money or valuables to political figures — including Chun, Lim and Kim — in exchange for support on long-sought projects such as a proposed Korea-Japan undersea tunnel. The investigation was triggered by statements from Yun.

 

The former lawmaker Chun, along with Lim and Kim, has categorically denied receiving any money or valuables."

Korea Times: Why Unification Church is so desperate for Korea-Japan undersea tunnel

" ... 'This would be a great international highway around which freedom is guaranteed,' Moon said that year at the 10th International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences in Seoul.

His proposal echoed the Japanese Empire’s idea from the 1910s and 1940s to connect the island nation to the continent by land to improve wartime logistics. Former Korean presidents — including Roh Tae-woo, Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun — also brought up the tunnel project during meetings with their Japanese counterparts.

Calling Korea the "Adam nation" and Japan the "Eve nation," Moon strongly emphasized the Korea-Japan undersea tunnel as the starting point of a providential effort to unite the world physically and spiritually. The project became central to the church's theology and identity.

The church has proposed a tunnel running from Japan's Kyushu and Tsushima islands to Korea's Geoje Island and onward to Busan, with some proposed routes stretching nearly 250 kilometers under the Korea Strait. If built, it would be the world's longest undersea tunnel."

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