Former KCFF Bookkeeper, Sophia Kim, Convicted of Tax Crimes in 2012
Monday, December 17, 2012
Sophia Kim, also known as Sookyeong Kim Sebold, a former resident of McLean, was convicted of embezzling more than $800,000 from the Korean Cultural and Freedom Foundation (KCFF) and failing to report the income on her tax returns.
Neil H. MacBride, United States attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Tax Division Kathryn Keneally; Rick A. Raven, special agent in charge of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation’s Washington, D.C., Field Office, made the announcement.
Sebold was convicted of one count of filing a false 2005 tax return, which carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison, and one count of tax evasion for the year 2005, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for March 1, 2013, before United States District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema.
Evidence at trial established that Sebold worked for the KCFF, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting cultural exchange through the sponsorship of the Universal Ballet Company (UBC) and other performing art events. UBC was founded by the Unification Church International (UCI) and Reverend Sun Myung Moon, and KCFF was funded primarily by UCI.
The evidence at trial proved that in 2005, Sebold embezzled more than $400,000 from KCFF’s bank accounts for her own benefit and used these funds for day trading, gambling and other personal expenses. She did not report these funds on her 2005 individual income tax return, resulting in her failure to pay more than $130,000 in taxes. In addition, the evidence at trial established that Sebold had also embezzled funds from KCFF in 2002, 2003, and 2004, for a total of more than $800,000 in unreported income.
http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2012/dec/17/week-mclean/
Sophia Kim served a 24-month federal prison sentence for her 2013 criminal conviction.
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Notes
1. Korean Cultural and Freedom Foundation was established in the 1964 and incorporated in District of Columbia.
2. In the mid-1960s, Col. [Bo Hi] Pak moved decisively in this new direction. In March 1964, he was the “moving force” behind the creation of the Korean Cultural and Freedom Foundation (KCFF) which sponsored the Little Angels’ performances in the United States, beginning in 1965. In late 1964, he resigned from the Korean army and his diplomatic post to engage in this activity full-time. The following year he persuaded Miss [Young-Oon] Kim to relocate from San Francisco to Washington, D.C., allowing her to take primary responsibility for church activities. Then, in 1966, he played a central role in establishing Radio of Free Asia (ROFA) as a second major project sponsored by KCFF. In effect, Col. Pak became a free-lance ambassador of goodwill, foundation director, and an activist in the struggle against atheistic communism.
http://www.tparents.org/library/unification/books/40years/40-1-14.htm
3. Another witness [at the 1978 Fraser Committee investigation of the UC], Robert Roland, (230) described his friendship with Pak Bo Hi when Pak was a military attache at the Korean Embassy in Washington in the early 1960s. According to Roland, Pak was then engaged in intelligence liaison work and was also proselytizing for Moon and the UC. Pak told Roland of his plans to use the KCFF and one of its projects, the Little Angels, to advance Moon’s cause, as well as to help the Korean Government. (231)
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/United_States_Congressional_investigation_of_the_Unification_Church
4. United States Congressional investigation of the Unification Church
INVESTIGATION OF KOREAN-AMERICAN RELATIONS
Report of the Subcommittee on International Organizations of the Committee on International Relations (1978)
United States House of Representatives
Conclusions and Recommendations
Also known as the Fraser Report after the Subcommittee’s chairman, Donald M. Fraser.Printed October 31, 1978, (excerpt from Part C: Investigative Findings, pp. 387-392).
The subcommittee findings regarding the Moon Organization may be summarized as follows:
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/United_States_Congressional_investigation_of_the_Unification_Church
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shamanxx said: I know Sophia’s ex, Michael Sebold, who told me of his former wife’s gambling addiction. After their divorce and the sale of their home, she blew about $30,000 in one Atlantic City weekend. So – no surprise. She needs jail time.
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2019
Kirov Ballet Academy of DC Exec, Sophia Kim, Stole $800K to Feed Gambling Addiction, Feds Say
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Bo Hi Pak and the KCFF scam – and Sun Myung Moon’s ROFA scam
FBI and other reports on Sun Myung Moon
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