Eight Shincheonji Leaders, Including Lee Man-hee, Indicted for Forcing Followers to Join People Power Party

Lee Man-hee, the leader of Shincheonji, who is accused of forcibly registering followers as members of the People Power Party, will stand trial. In addition, former and current Shincheonji executives, including Ko Dong-an, the former secretary-general who was once called the "second-in-command" of Shincheonji, have also been indicted on the same charges.

Lee Manhee, the chairman of Shincheonji facing charges of violating the Political Party Act, is attending a detention hearing (warrant review) held on the 24th at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho-gu, Seoul. Photo by Yonhap News

On July 13, the joint investigative team announced that Lee Man-hee had been indicted and detained on charges including violating the Political Parties Act and obstruction of work. Alongside him, three others—Ko Dong-an (former secretary-general, currently in detention), and the former secretaries-general of the Yohanjipa and Simonjipa branches—were also sent to trial on the same charges while in custody. Four additional Shincheonji executives, accused of assisting in these crimes, were indicted without detention.

Lee Man-hee and the others are accused of coercing church members to join the People Power Party between 2021 and 2024 in order to exert influence over the party’s primaries for the presidential and general elections. Article 42 of the current Political Parties Act stipulates that no one may force another person to join or leave a political party.

The investigation found that Shincheonji systematically encouraged its members to join the People Power Party by using project names such as the "Pilates Project" for each branch. Prosecutors determined that at least 56,472 followers had joined the People Power Party as a result.

According to data on the timing of membership registrations, 6,482 followers first joined in July 2021, ahead of the 20th presidential election. This was followed by 2,873 new members in December 2021, 35,073 in December 2022, and 12,044 in August 2023, each time completing party membership registration sequentially.

As the statute of limitations (five years) for violations of the Political Parties Act was about to expire for the July 2021 registrations, the joint investigative team proceeded with an initial indictment on June 29. On July 13, they filed additional indictments after further investigation into the remaining charges.

The investigation revealed that Lee Man-hee led these acts because he believed it was necessary to artificially establish a "connection" with the political sphere to address various internal challenges within the religious group. Former and current executives, including Ko Dong-an, systematically pressured each branch to meet party membership targets and monitored progress, all under Lee’s direction and approval.

The joint investigative team, officially launched on January 6 of this year, conducted searches and seizures at 56 locations, including the Shincheonji headquarters in Gwacheon, to uncover the suspected scheme of orchestrated party enrollments. They questioned 203 related individuals a total of 272 times, ultimately securing the detention and indictment of Lee Man-hee, the central figure in the case.

Meanwhile, during the investigation, the team found evidence that a former Shincheonji executive had delivered lists and statistical data of members who had joined the party to officials from then-presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol’s campaign. However, they reportedly did not uncover concrete criminal charges related to this action.

Nevertheless, the investigation into other crimes—including the alleged embezzlement of over 10 billion won within the religious group, led by Ko Dong-an—will continue.

A representative of the joint investigative team emphasized, "We will thoroughly investigate other related allegations, including illegal political donations using funds from the Unification Church, embezzlement of work funds, as well as tax evasion and work-related embezzlement by Shincheonji."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.