Yoo Byung-eun
[4][5] In official documents from the Blue House, the Defense Security Command (DSC) identified Yoo as a target to distract the public from its dissent over the Korean Coast Guard's failure to rescue passengers from the ferry.
[6][7] Yoo, who retired from his board position at Chonghaejin in 1997, was targeted in official communications prior to the conclusion of any investigation to manage public outrage and maintain government stability.
[43][44][45][46] After six people, including a former follower of Park named Kim Do-hyun,[47] surrendered to authorities on 10 July 1991,[48] the case was reopened and found money transactions between Odaeyang Trading Co. and a member of Evangelical Baptist Church.
[70] In France in 2012, Yoo made headlines prior to his photo exhibition in the Tuileries Garden at The Louvre when he through his public relations company, Ahae Press, bought the abandoned village of Courbefy for €520,000 (US$663,000, ₩767.5 million).
[14] He owns a plantation in the United States called 123Farm,[80][81] one of the largest organic lavender farms in California started in 2001 at the site of the Highland Springs Resort,[82] a 2,400 acres (970 ha; 3.8 sq mi) property consisting of a 56-room hotel, conference center, and restaurants.
[91][92][93] Ahae (아해), which means "child" in old Korean language, was a nickname used in reference to Yoo in correspondence on an Evangelical Baptist Church website EBC World.
The location is the rural commune belonging to the Evangelical Baptist Church called "Geumsuwon" (금수원) east of Anseong south of Seoul, where Yoo lived.
[120] From June to August 2012, Through My Window (De ma fenêtre) was displayed in a 12,000 square feet (1,100 m2), four-story bespoke exhibition pavilion erected in the Tuileries Garden, that is administratively attached to The Louvre, in Paris.
Pre-recorded in Abbey Road Studios by the London Metropolitan Orchestra the 46 minutes composition played alongside the exhibition, and was later released on Blu-ray Disc.
[127][128][129][130] For the gala dinner in the exhibition pavilion on 25 June 2012 Keith H. Yoo had commissioned British composer Michael Nyman to write a 26 minutes long piano quintet in four movements titled Through the Only Window.
"[139] For his second solo exhibition in France, Fenêtre sur l'extraordinaire (Window on the Extraordinary), Ahae rented the Orangerie Hall of the Palace of Versailles from 25 June to 9 September 2013.
Ahae's forensic attention to detail reveals the stoicism, dignity and minor dramas of the animals going about their daily business, and raises these pictures to the realm of poetry.Parisian newspapers Le Monde and Libération, several French art magazines, as well as Korean expatriates in France in an open letter on 12 June to French Minister of Culture, Aurélie Filippetti, Catherine Pégard, president of the Château de Versailles, Henri Loyrette, ex-president of the Louvre and co-president of the French-Korean Year, and Bruno Ory-Lavollé, director of the Forest Festival in Compiègne, have raised their concerns over French cultural institutions accepting self-financed exhibitions in return for donations.
[196][197] Sewol was remodeled between October 2012 and February 2013 to increase the number of passenger cabins and add a fifth floor, mainly used as an exhibition hall for photographs by Yoo (Ahae).
[205][206] They are also looking into circumstantial evidence that Yoo's family has claimed commission fees of tens of billions of won from the related companies for the use of trademark rights for names like Sewol.
[69][70][179] Son Byeong-gi, a lawyer representing both Yoo, Chonghaejin Marine, and I-One-I Holdings, said on 22 April that "If there is any legal responsibility, the owners are willing to offer their wealth and assets to help compensate the victims.
[19][219] Transcripts of land registers showed that four days later Yoo and his family signed over some 24 properties worth around ₩27 billion (~US$26 million) to the Evangelical Baptist Church of Korea on 28 and 29 April.
[220] On 13 May, the Incheon District Prosecutors' Office summoned Yoo to appear for questioning by 16 May,[221] but he failed to heed the call,[101][222] and was presumed hiding in the church compound Geumsuwon south of Seoul.
[232][233] President Park Geun-hye during a Cabinet meeting on 27 May ordered a quick arrest of the fugitive Yoo saying he and his family "is ridiculing the law and causing indignation among the people.
[239] On 9 May 2014, police raided the firm's office in southern Seoul on suspicion it had been involved in forming the family's slush funds and managing them in overseas accounts.
[253][254] She was held at the Fresnes Prison and was projected to bring her extradition case to the French Supreme Court, or even to judicial authorities of the European Union, which could have delayed her repatriation up to one year.
[308] Oh, who served as the Korean ambassador to the Czech Republic from January 2010 through June 2013,[300][305] reportedly played a significant role in garnering support for Yoo's photo exhibitions in France.
[309] Oh is currently under review by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs's disciplinary committee for allegations that he abused his authority to help Yoo hold a photo exhibition in France and other European countries.
[308][310] Oh and his wife were released on 26 June reportedly with the expressed willingness to actively cooperate with the investigation and mediate the surrender of Yoo,[311] and because under Korean criminal law family members to a fugitive cannot be punished for hiding or aiding the suspect.
[284][314] Kwon was detained in an apartment in Bundang, Gyeonggi Province on 21 June and taken in for questioning on charges of embezzling funds from the Evangelical Baptist Church and her company, reportedly amounting to more than ₩1 billion (US$979,850) that had been handed over to her husband and her son to expand their business.
[290][321][325][326] On 25 June Lee Seok-hwan (이석환; born c. 1949), considered Yoo's "right-hand man," was arrested in a parking lot in Suwon, south of Seoul, after avoiding a manhunt for weeks.
[311][327][328][329] In mid June 2014, Chonhaiji Co. Ltd., a ship block maker controlled by Yoo's sons, and the major shareholder of Chonghaejin Marine Company with 39.4%, lodged its application for receivership at the Changwon District Court.
[330][331] On 27 June, the Government of South Korea had calculated the costs in connection with the sinking of the ferry Sewol to ₩403.1 billion (~US$397.8 million), and lodged a claim to any properties held directly or by proxy by Yoo and Chonghaejin Marine at the Seoul Central District Court to cover compensation payments for the victims.
He paid ₩250 million (~US$247,000) and registered it under the names of the married couple, members of his religious group, who run a rest stop and restaurant near Suncheon and are suspected of aiding Yoo's escape from the law.
The prosecutors asked the United States Department of Homeland Security's Investigations Directorate to track down real estate and deposits under the names of the siblings or affiliates of the family business.
[349] Many of these false reports occurred when the press redirected public sentiment towards President Park stemming from the ferry disaster over to Yoo Byung-Eun and the Salvation Group.
