Ps David Yonggi Cho of Yoido Full Gospel Church Sentenced “Three Years In Prison, Suspended For Five Years, And … To Pay 5 billion Won”

Senior pastor David Yonggi Cho gets lighter sentence on account of his religious activities

By Kim Mi-hyang, staff reporter

On Feb. 20, Hon. Cho Yong-hyun with the 23rd criminal division of the Seoul District Court sentenced David Yonggi Cho, 78, senior pastor of Yoido Full Gospel Church, to three years in prison, suspended for five years, and ordered him to pay 5 billion won (US$4.67 million) in fines. Cho was charged with causing around 13.1 billion won in damages to his church and evading approximately 3.5 billion won in taxes in the process (embezzlement as defined in the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes). In addition, Pastor Cho’s oldest son Cho Hee-jun, 49, former chairman of the Yeongsan Christian Culture Center, was given a three-year prison sentence and taken into custody.

“The criminal activity would have been impossible without the approval of Pastor Cho, who had ultimate decision-making authority,” the court ruled. “By condoning the documents that were being written while he was the head of the church, he was largely responsible for these crimes.”

The court also took into consideration the fact that Pastor Cho has contributed to social welfare over the years as a religious figure, which it explained as the reason for his lenient sentence.

The court sentenced Cho Hee-jun to actual time in prison, regarding him as the mastermind behind most of the crimes, including dereliction of duty.

Cho was indicted in 2013 on charges of professional negligence and tax evasion. At the request of his son, Cho allegedly had Yoido Full Gospel Church purchase 250,000 shares of stock in I-Service held by the Yeongsan Christian Culture Center at 86,984 won per share, even though the shares were only worth 34,386 won each, resulting in a 13.1 billion won loss for the church. When a gift tax was imposed on the church’s expensive stock purchase, Cho allegedly submitted documents to the tax authorities depicting the transaction as a normal loan, evading 3.5 billion won in taxes.

Yoido Full Gospel Church purges elders who blew whistle on founder

Senior members face punishment for accusations against David Yonggi Cho and will seek legal recourse

By Kim Kyu-nam, staff reporter

Yoido Full Gospel Church has suspended or expelled 28 elders for not withdrawing legal accusations against senior pastor David Yonggi Cho, 77.

The punishments are a form of retaliation for blowing the whistle on alleged misdeeds by Cho and his son Hee-jun, 48. This comes even as the father faces prosecution for more than US$10 million in breach of trust losses and millions of dollars in taxes evaded, while the son, a onetime Kookmin Ilbo chairman, was placed under court custody in January, which is evidence that the allegations were likely true.

Yoido Full Gospel Church has around one million members and is the biggest Pentecostal Christian congregation in the world. It was founded in 1958 by Cho and his mother Choi Ja-shil, who are both Assemblies of God pastors.

The church announced on Mar. 14 that its committee for the current term had held a meeting where it decided to expel elders Kim Dae-jin, Kim Seok-gyun, and Ha Sang-ok, who led the accusations against Cho in 2011, and suspend the other 25 who took part.

The committee was chaired by senior pastor Lee Young-hoon and made up of 46 other members including representatives of the church steering committee. It passed the disciplinary action by a vote of 36 in favor, nine against, and two abstentions. According to church bylaws, an expulsion is the second strongest disciplinary action after excommunication, stripping the person of all duties within the church for over one year. A suspension strips an individual of duties for six months or more.

After an emergency meeting on Feb. 17, the church announced that it would be taking action if the whistle blowers did not retract their accusations against David Yonggi Cho. On Feb. 28, the Assembly of God of Korea - a church affiliated with Yoido Full Gospel - and the Christian Council of Korea (chaired by Rev. Hong Jae-chul) said that anyone who did not withdraw their accusations against Cho would be dismissed according to church code.

“Obviously, the disciplinary action is wrong,” said a church elder who spoke on condition of anonymity. “The elders’ accusations were true. It is also wrong procedurally to discipline them for not following the order to withdraw their accusations when it was not an official decision by the church conference.”

One elder who was disciplined said they were planning to appeal the decision in terms of church rules and civil law.

Kim Ae-hee, secretary-general of Christian Alliance for Church Reform, said the elders felt compelled to go to prosecutors after the church did not respond when the matter was raised internally.

“What the flock wants is for the prosecutors to investigate the breach of trust charges fairly,” Kim said. “Hopefully, Rev. Cho will go along honorably with the investigation without any interference from the church.”

Assemblies of God Launches Next 'Jesus Movement' by

The Human Right is a movement to encourage students to live the message of Jesus, read and understand the Bible and have the boldness to share the message. (Facebook)

Believing every person has the right to experience a clear and adequate presentation of the gospel of Jesus, Assemblies of God on Wednesday launched The Human Right, a movement to encourage students to live the message of Jesus, read and understand the Bible, and have the boldness to share the message.

The Human Right complements the Assemblies of God's extensive involvement in providing human rights through ministries such as:

Convoy of Hope, which has served 65 million people, providing disaster relief with global teams working from six international warehouses and feeding 145,000 children in 11 countries; Project Rescue, which in 2013 gave freedom to over 35,000 women and children from sex trafficking; Cry Africa, which has a network of practitioners throughout sub-Saharan Africa assisting in education and care for those affected by AIDS/HIV; Latin America ChildCare, which has had more than 1.5 million students pass through its network of schools in 21 countries throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.

"This generation is very culturally sensitive to human rights," said Dr. George O. Wood, general superintendent for the Assemblies of God. "We're actively involved in child advocacy, child sponsorships, water wells, feeding programs and any number of issues that deal with human rights. But there is a right that is even more basic and that is the right of every single person to have a clear and adequate presentation of the gospel of Jesus. We want to ensure this human right is being met worldwide."

The Human Right movement seeks to unite students in rising from apathy to action, entitlement to responsibility, and silence to advocacy.

"There are 2 billion people that don't have this basic human right, and in fact many of them are not only living across the ocean but in our own backyard," said Dr. Wood.

Speed the Light (STL), the student-led, church-facilitated initiative of the Assemblies of God that provides students the opportunity to engage in missions, is the global expression of The Human Right movement, and Youth Alive, which works cross-denominationally to connect youth ministry to the schools, is the local expression.

The Human Right website, TheHumanRight.org, launched Wednesday, allowing individuals to join the movement. Assemblies of God churches will be encouraged to partner with the movement during the closing of the Assemblies of God Centennial Celebration in Springfield, Missouri, on Aug. 10.

In October, The Human Right Tour, a multi-day experience created to help students press pause on the busyness of life and seek to know Jesus more and make Him known, will begin. The themes woven throughout the experience center on the three core values of The Human Right: Abide, Abandon and Advocate.


Each core value is connected to a key experience of the tour, with each one offering practical application: a prayer room with teaching and prayer times; a main service experience; and a community outreach. Churches may sign up now to host an experience on TheHumanRight.org.