In 1982, Sun Myung Moon, the founder and leader of the Unification Church, was imprisoned in the United States after being found guilty by a jury of willfully filing false Federal income tax returns and conspiracy. Church members and supporters decried the prosecution as politically motivated, saying that the government made a federal case out of a small matter.
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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 church maintains that these were rather being held on behalf of the church by Rev. Moon. Indeed, Rev. 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.
One of the defenses used at trial was that the funds were not really his, but were held in trust for members of the Japanese Unification Church. The United States church had only about 300 members at the time and had not yet incorporated. Moon's lawyer argued that, after using a small portion of those funds for his family's living expenses (and declaring the portion used on his income tax returns), Moon transferred the balance to the Unification Church of America after its incorporation. Holding church funds in a minister's name is a fairly commonplace action, particularly in small churches, and some church-related or other organizations filed amicus curiae briefs in the case.[2] Other organizations which filed a briefs on Moon's behalf included 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. On appeal the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit noted that Moon had argued that "insistence on a jury trial had the effect of punishing Moon for exercising his First Amendment right of free speech [in connection with some statements Moon had made that, it was feared, would prejudice a jury[4] The punishment, so the argument runs, took the form of denying Moon a benefit, i.e., a nonjury trial, that he would otherwise have been entitled to." The Court of Appeals rejected this argument, stating: "The right to trial by jury is a benefit granted an accused... which a defendant has the power to waive.... The ability to waive the benefit does not import a right to claim its opposite." The Court noted that Rule 23(a) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure "does not require that the Government articulate its reasons for demanding a jury trial at the time it refuses to consent to a defendant's proffered waiver [of a jury trial]."[5]
Moon was convicted on all counts in 1982, and the convictions were upheld on appeal. He was represented in the appeal by Laurence Tribe, one of the foremost constitutional law experts and Supreme Court practitioners in the nation. 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.[6]
Takeru Kamiyama, Moon's aide and codefendent 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.[7]
Kenneth Briggs, former religion editor of the New York Times, wrote:
Ed Farmer, a fellow inmate, said:
While Moon was in prison, Unification Church members 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.[9] 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.[10] 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.[11]
Supporters regard the tax case as politically motivated. The prosecutors offered to drop the case in return that Moon surrendered his green card, which he chose not to do. The official website of the American Unification Church, unification.org, says:
A United States Senate subcommittee, chaired by Senator Orrin Hatch, conducted its own investigation into Reverend Moon's tax case and published its findings in a report which concluded:
Jeremiah S. Gutman, president of the New York Civil Liberties Union, called the prosecution "an indefensible intrusion in private religious affairs."[4] 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.[13]
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.[14] In 1991 Pulitzer-prize winning reporter Carlton Sherwood wrote a book in Sun Myung 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.[15][16]
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 U.S. 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.[15][16][17]