#260: Korean Billionaire “With No Face” Mysteriously Linked To 32 Dead People In Attic

26:53I start working here and she's going around telling us that she cured her own cancer back in the day by prayer alone and that she is the Messiah, the conqueror of the five oceans. And if we disobey her, we'll all go to hell. And I was like, whoa, I thought this was a nine to five that I was signing up for. What the hell is going on? All the other employees were like deep in it. That's what some of the victims said. These employees were like, yes. And they later found out that some of these employees weren't even getting paid. They weren't even getting paid. They were just free labors. The victim said, you know, it started to get really weird when she forced us to ask her permission to leave the grounds of the factory.

27:31She also had something called sin time, like repentance time to repent for your sins. It happened randomly, probably like once a month. We'd all be gathered in the gym room, almost like a company meeting, but we would be forced to slap each other in the face, like just sit there and like slap each other around to repent for our sins. It was a lot. She also had this apocalyptic streak about her. she just really felt like the world was ending. And she felt like everyone needed to obey her to be saved. She also was quoted to say, the factory is heaven. And if you want to go to heaven, you work here for free.

28:07So all these little insinuations of her being a part of a religious cult or being a cult leader start coming out. And the investigators are like, okay, we need to take this into account. And this is when we see two very popular theories form of what happened in Odae Yang. because to this day, I don't think there's anyone that can say with 100 % certainty that they know what happened up there in the attic, that they know what happened to these 32 people. So the first route comes from prosecutors and the police and the formal justice department of South Korea. So the investigators had found 100 pieces of cotton and fabric that had been stuffed into the victims, the 32 people's mouths in the attic.

28:47And everyone assumed that the pieces of fabric would be laced with some sort of toxic chemical or something that wasn't compatible with life. And that is what killed everyone, right? That's what everyone's thinking. But no, they were all clean. There was no sign of any sort of toxic substance, which is very, very odd. I mean, these pieces of fabric were shoved very deeply, even into the nostrils of these 32 people. The autopsies of all 32 people showed that all of them had ligature strangulation marks. They died from manual strangulation, meaning that someone had tied a rope around their neck tightened it and started pulling and pulling and pulling until they were no longer alive it was manual it's a lot of labor to do that to someone and it's it's a very painful way to go yeah it's intense yeah takes forever takes forever so much struggle and wow and there's 32 now the prominent theory that the prosecution ran with is that someone in the group or a few people of the group had killed everyone.

29:49And these people were not resisting. They were open to it. They were almost waiting in line, waiting for their turn, because they're thinking this is some sort of religious event, right? A ritual, a sacrifice of their own lives, if you will. So these few people went around tying the ropes around the others, killing them. And at the very end, probably, they presume, the factory manager was the last one to die. And that's why he hanged himself in the middle of the attic. Now, the theory is that Park Soon-ja had to die because she was$80 million in debt and the creditors were knocking on her door.

30:21She's probably going to go to prison. So these followers, they wanted to die with her. But there are reasons that that theory doesn't make sense. And this is the theory that's legally accepted today. There's some contradictions. There's some questions that even the detectives that worked on this case that agree with this theory, that agree with the final decision, are kind of confused about. So first of all, Park Soon-jia was the first one to die when they looked at time of deaths. This is very unusual. Experts who study religious group killings say, no, absolutely not. Unless the leader dies from an accidental death or natural causes, like they have a terminal illness or old age, they are never the first one to go.

31:00Especially in an event like this, they will make sure that everybody else is dead before they themselves die. That doesn't make sense. Another odd detail was that there were 28 women and four men. 12 of these women were found with evidence of semen in their bodies. So either they were abused by these four men before they passed away, or they voluntarily interacted with men in that attic that has no rooms, is an open floor plan. And this is august in korea there was no ac up in that attic it's like 90 degrees up there whoa it just didn't make sense especially because pak sunja her two sons were in the attic as well as her daughter and she was found with semen in her body so it just would this mother really voluntarily have these activities in front of her own children or was this forced upon her it's very confusing right yeah that's suspicious yeah in addition to all of that she had hemorrhaging in her skull indicating that she was either hit on the head with a blunt force object like a hammer or her head had been smashed into the wall, which is all very, very strange.

32:06She also has a lot of like markings, like defensive wounds. So she fought until her very last minute. And if she was the first one to go, her followers are just watching her resist all of this with as much energy as she could muster. And they're like, you know what? Keep doing it and we'll go next. experts that study a lot of religious groups say that just doesn't make sense. But the prosecutors, they're honing in on this. They're like, that's what it was, okay? Religion sometimes doesn't make sense. Well, I don't even want to categorize this as religion, but you get it. These cults don't really make sense, so what can you do?

32:43And the reason that the whole scene is so bizarre is because it's probably some sort of ritual or something that's symbolic to this cult that we, from the outside, cannot understand. Now, about a year later, after this case was essentially closed, there was a special committee that was appointed to this case to investigate corruption. And the chairman to that committee was Chairman Kim. And he does not believe that initial theory. He's like, absolutely not. He believes the government just wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible. The government didn't want to overcomplicate things. So they chalked it up to something that the public could at least wrap their heads around, which is a religious cult.

33:23Kim believes that all 32 people were murdered and they were all murdered in a separate location and not in the attic. He thinks the attic was a dumping grounds for 32 bodies. He thinks all 32 people were killed. So the main reason that he brings up is the factory manager, Lee, the one that was found hanging, the one that had allegedly killed everybody else before he killed himself, Kim doesn't believe that this factory worker could have strangled and killed everyone before ending his own life. First of all, Kim argues that for a man to end 30 people's lives, 31 people's lives, it would have taken at least five, six people.

34:00And he thinks that's being conservative. The prosecutor, the government, they also say that Lee, the factory manager, he was the one tightening the ropes around everyone. And Kim is saying, even if he's wearing gloves, do you know how much that's going to take a toll on his hands? And there was nothing on his hands. No evidence of swelling that wasn't consistent with decomposition. There was no evidence of abrasions, markings, rope burns, nothing. That's very strange. Another part that really, really brings a lot of people to his theory is that there are different markings around everyone. Technically, you could say that all 32 people died of strangulation.

34:40Now, the marks should be different. Everyone else should have different neck marks from the factory manager. Everyone else was strangled by a rope that was tightened around their neck. So that means it would be a full circular ring around their neck. Meanwhile, Lee, the factory manager, was found hanging. That's a very different ligature mark. So they're saying that mark, because you're using the gravity of your body and the weight of your corpse, you have this soft spot in your neck that has a little bit of give. So the rope is naturally going to go up into that soft spot, and it's going to leave almost this triangular-shaped rope in the back.

35:14back so your ligature mark is not going to go all the way around your neck there's going to be a little bit of gap between your neck and the rope at the top because gravity is pulling your body down yeah yeah it shouldn't touch in the back yeah yes he had a full ligature mark a full circle a full circle okay then somebody else did it yeah now you could argue that maybe someone was choking him or he tried to choke himself in that manner and then it didn't work so then he hanged himself but it's just very, very strange. There's too many what ifs or like, oh, here's a weird thing that could have happened.

35:49So Kim, the chairman, theorizes that people killed all 32 people, wanted all 32 of them dead for whatever reason, and then brought them up to this attic to stage this, some sort of mass religious tragedy. He also claims that's why their wrists and their ankles were bound the way that they were bound. Now, Kim argues that if you were tying someone up, okay, let's say you're trying to end someone's life. you're going to tie them up. And when you do, you're going to tie them up really tight. You're going to make sure that they can't wiggle around or get out of these little bounds. But the way that everyone was tied up was loosely with fabric, like blankets almost, and handkerchiefs.

36:25He said, you know what it reminds him of? When you, in Korea, we have like these boxes that you tie with like a scarf and you lift it up and you carry it like that. Carry it by the knot. So he's thinking that all these people were killed at a second location, a separate location they had their ankles and their arms bound and people were lifting them up like that into the attic i mean to kill to strangle 32 people that's gonna take a lot of manpower yeah a lot and moving all of them like that's like a huge team yeah and that's why some people debunk his theory and argue for the prosecutor's theory they're saying that you know another thing is if kim is arguing that all these bodies were brought into the attic there's going to be snags and rips on their clothes because even if you're super careful someone's shirt is going to get caught on like a wood plank none of them had any sort of crazy tears or signs of wear on their clothes another thing that the prosecutors argue is that it took about six to seven officers to bring each body down just one body there's not really it's not stairs that you can take into the attic it's like a ladder so to get these bodies down and they're saying it must be harder to get them back up.

37:37Right. That's true. Yeah. So, you know, I don't think that there is one right or wrong answer. That's why I believe that no one truly is going to know what's going on. Like no one's going to know the truth of what happened in that attic. It's just these are the two very popular theories right now. I will say the government is on the theory that it was a religious incident, but it's just very strange. Now, the biggest question that everyone had, though, was before Park Soon-ja died, $18 million of corporate funds vanished. So where did it go? First of all, if corporate funds vanish like that, it doesn't seem like someone who's trying to die anytime soon, right?

38:16It sounds like someone who's trying to go on the run. But where did the$18 million go? Did it go to Park's husband? Where is this going? And where did any of the money go? I mean, was she investing the$80 million into different companies? Like, what's going on? So this is where a massive conspiracy theory comes in. And this is a conspiracy theory. And I need to legally state a conspiracy theory is a theory. Just because you believe something to be true does not make it true. It's just what we've seen people talk about on the internet. And I am just relaying that information to you. So there is a conspiracy theory that Park was a pawn.

38:53Park was not a religious leader. She wasn't even really the CEO of Five Oceans. She was being utilized by someone even more powerful because all of the money that she was getting in, it seemed to be going. And there's transfer funds. There's literally slips of transfers that have been approved. Like the government has seen this and they're like, yeah, that actually happened. Between Five Oceans, the company, and a company called Sam Wu Trading. Sam Wu Trading is owned by Yoo Byung-un, the billionaire. So she's sending money to him. Yes. And what is he doing? Exactly. And why would she send all that money to him?

39:37Why would she risk her life to send him money? Well, a lot of people think it's connected to his church that he started. So we're going to get into the billionaire story now. Yu Byung-un is the leader of, well, he was the leader of the Evangelical Baptist Church in South Korea. And I do need to put a disclaimer that this church is massive. I think there's about 100 ,000 members in this church globally. And there's different sects. Today? Yeah, today in 2023. Okay. So I feel really good. I feel really safe. I feel really comfortable talking about all this stuff. I'm very scared. There's a lot of churches in Korea, huh?

40:14Yeah, there's actually like a whole reason for it. There's actually so many political factors that went into it. Like Korea was in a state of chaos at one point. It's fascinating. But this church in Korea has a lot of subsects and a lot of these subsects of churches have no connection with the billionaire, nor do they have connection with him. Like they broke off and started their own thing. They're like, we don't like this guy. We like our church. We're going to start a new church. So not everyone that's in the evangelical Baptist church is bad, nor is it really categorized as a cult. I'm just going to call it an organization for now because I'm legally a little bit cautious right now.

40:55But it's very interesting. He starts this church and it's speculated that Park was a member of this church and she started Five Oceans to provide Sam Mu trading with money, the leader of her church with millions of dollars. But why and how and is this even true and what's going on? So let's talk about Yu Byung-un. Now, these days, Yoo Byung-eun is a household name for all the wrong reasons because of the Sewol Ferry tragedy and the way that he was hunted down by the police and the way that he died. Everybody knows his name. But keep in mind, back in the day, nobody knew him. He was known as Korea's billionaire without a face.

41:35He was incredibly private. Nobody even knows how he became a billionaire. That's how private he was. Like other people, you could be like, oh, well, they started Amazon. They started this, right? this guy all we know is what he's told his church about his childhood he said ever since he was a kid he wanted to be michelangelo he wanted to be the next big artist he said he felt it in his bones that he was someone that was artistic someone that was creative that could speak through this kind of language that was his ultimate dream but how could he do that when he was born into this poor village family.

42:10He was a rather sickly child. Early on, he fought a rather tough battle of tuberculosis, and it seems like he never fully recovered. He went through school hoping, you know, I'm just going to find a job to support my family. That's like how a lot of poor village kids his age were thinking. But in high school, he met a group of American Christian missionaries, and he said his entire life changed. Not only did he want to get into religion, not only did he become religious, but he wanted to spread the word, which is arguably the more controversial part of Christianity. But he said that his whole life mission was to help save people, basically.

42:48And he was a little bit of an apocalyptic sect, meaning that he felt like the world was going to end anytime soon. So he needed people to be saved soon, because if the world ends in five years and you're not saved, you're shit out of luck, you're going to be in hell. Now, he did have a lot of charisma ever since he was a kid. So he meets a young woman, they get married, and with his father-in-law, he starts a church, and everybody is poor. The whole you family, super broke, okay? They've got no money. They're in debt when they start this church, but they're so passionate about their religious teachings.

43:21They call the church the Evangelical Baptist Church, aka EBC, or the Salvation Sect. The church, again, like I said, later splits up, so not everyone in EBC is bad or associated with Pyong-un. The church is interesting. The salvation sect, his sect, is very interesting and unique. Their teachings are wild. So Pyong-un, the billionaire, told his followers that you earn the right to heaven no matter how bad your sins are. You could kill someone, you could rip a whole village, and you will get to heaven as long as you follow me and you are saved. You only need to be saved once in your lifetime. It's like a get out of jail free card.

43:57So most Christians do not believe that. They feel like you have to live your whole life trying to prevent sin and trying not to sin because that's how you show like you were worthy, right? But he's saying, hey, you could have killed 10 people, but I save you today. You can go on to kill 50 people. There's no take backsies. Do you know what I mean? Like I can't take back your salvation. Yeah, it was, um, it's an interesting concept that most Christians absolutely despised. Many Christians that belong to more mainstream groups stated that Yoo Byung-un and his followers were lawless criminals who weren't upholding their faith.

44:35The Presbyterian Church of Korea officially categorized Yoo Byung-un's church as a violation of Christian belief, and they straight up called them heretics. One of the pastors said, he's a cult leader. He is defied as some sort of Moses or Messiah amongst his followers, and they give him money as he pleases. Yoo Byung-un and his followers, they passionately refute this. They say, no, no, no. You hate us because you don't understand us Because we don't practice the same way that you practice That's the reason you hate us One very fascinating thing about this group Is how reclusive they are I mean the whole church is shrouded in secrecy Which is kind of unheard of I feel like most religious organizations That don't feel all that religious Don't sue me But they're kind of wild Like even JMS Think of all the public events they held All the videos that have been found online Of JMS out there giving his sermons in his crisp white tuxedos.

45:29But not this church. This church was so, so secretive. I mean, it's a major religious organization with tens if not hundreds of thousands of followers and yet nobody knows what's going on in there. They do have some weird things that they did though. Well, I don't want to say weird, but remember how Yoo Byung-un the billionaire was very sick as a child? Apparently, he taught his followers that germs were really bad. So he stated he hates how other Christians pray before meals and let their little white spicks of spit fall into their food. Yeah, so you had a thing about not praying before meals.

46:07Interesting take, I tell you. I've never heard that before. But Yoo Byung-un was not fazed by all these other Christians basically shunning him and his church. They deemed it a cult, but Byung-un didn't care. Because within just two decades of starting his church, he was a billionaire. Two decades. Where he collected billions of dollars? Let me tell you, okay? You're thinking billions of dollars in church donations? That's crazy. Not exactly. Pyongun was a businessman before he was a religious leader. The Evangelical Baptist Church ran very differently from other organizations that we've talked about.

46:44Let me explain by telling you the story of Lim. Lim is a South Korean man who went to his mom's house and saw another box of these supplements that she had just recently become so obsessed with. She's like, these supplements are going to save my life and they're going to save yours. He didn't really understand why she was into squalene. It was like made from shark livers. But maybe that's what happens when you get older. You start looking for ways to stay healthy. He didn't realize it was too late that she was being scammed. Not just scammed, but meticulously targeted, manipulated, and defrauded.

47:17Mrs. Lim, his mother, was known in the area as being rich, alone, and very sweet. You know, her kids would check up on her, but they're all adults. They have families of their own. She would spend most of her days alone. A group of strangers appeared at her door, asking her questions and helping her around in the kitchen, giving her massages, giving her tips on what to eat to feel more energetic. She loved the conversation. I mean, it was just nice to talk to someone. But the visits became more and more frequent, and they started telling her that If you ever plan to be saved, you know, because you don't have much time left, our religion is pretty easy.

47:56You know, other religions are so complex. You have to go through this whole process where you have to repent for your sins. You've got to do all of this, and then you've got to do all this good deeds. You don't have to do that. You don't have to read the Bible every day. You simply have to join our church, and you'll be saved. They told her it was founded by a billionaire named Yoo Byung-un and his father-in-law, and they were special. What do you mean they were special? It's hard to explain, but Mrs. Lim, we'll drop off some sermons and you'll see. He's different. And, you know, when you're listening to the sermons and you feel this enormous wave of emotions come to you, you need to write that time down.

48:35So they were in the practice of writing down the exact time that they got saved. So Mrs. Lim listens to the tapes alone in her condo and it hit her. She feels these emotions. She wants to cry and she writes down the time and she's like, I've been saved. this is what salvation feels like. But you know what else salvation feels like? Squalene shark liver pills. Yeah, the church sold it. They recommended it and sold it for salvation. And they sold it for$1 ,300 a box. They also sold knickknacks for like$2 ,000, a jewelry box made out of the shittiest quality material. They sold everything. It's like an MLM inside of a church.

49:15Wow. This is not a regular organization that we're talking about. This is straight up QVC MLM meets a church. Mrs. Lim bought box after box after box after box, as well as a bunch of other things that the church insisted that she needed and sold at insanely ridiculous prices. And she couldn't go to the market and be like, you know what? Your squalene is$1 ,300 and I can find squalene for$10. No, because that's not blessed. Okay, you need to buy this one. They were cluttering up her home. It's speculated that she spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on these items. But the real salvation happened when the Salvation sect offered her a rare opportunity not only to get rich but also save the world.

49:58They said that they were going to create a business that was coming up with this top-notch medical facility. So they need funds for it and you're going to get returns because once the hospital is up and running, I mean, it's going to be a lot of profit. I mean, think of how great that idea is. And you're saving lives. She forked over half a million dollars in cash to make it happen. She invested half a million dollars, never told her sons and daughters. That was a majority of her remaining assets. In exchange, she received a formal official note. Is this sounding similar? Is this sounding familiar to anything?

50:32A document explaining the transfer of funds and how she's going to be paid back with returns. and the company that signed this note was the Sam Wu Trading Group. That trading group would file for bankruptcy and they would have$225 million in debt. They would leave Mrs. Lim with nothing. I think even worse than losing the money was she felt completely abandoned in life. She eventually passed away in 2008 and it's said that she was never the same after this betrayal. Now, she was just one of the many people that fell victim to the Salvation Sect. And the Salvation Sect is so fascinating that, hey, they're still around to this day.

51:12And the way that they function is bizarre.

51:21So this church is a church. They're sermons. But they also ask all of the church members to invest in the companies that are basically run by the church. The executives of these companies are run by church members. Most of the employees are church members, allegedly. All of this is kind of, it's like a networking event. A professor who studied Yoo Byung-un and his religion said, Yoo Byung-un preaches that corporate activities are equivalent to religious activities. He used his followers as a tool to bloat his own wealth. A pastor that made it out of the Salvation sect said, Yubyong-un expanded his business through a system of believers and exploitation of labor.

52:01I mean, it's crazy. Imagine if Jeff Bezos started a religion and asked you to donate all your money into his companies because you follow him spiritually. And everything was set up like a pyramid-like structure of dozens of subsidiaries under his holding company, like shell company after shell company after shell company after shell company. A lot of the times, Yubyong-un's name wasn't even listed as a major shareholder or someone who had heavy interest in the success of these businesses. Most of the times they would be listed under followers names that he indirectly controlled allegedly or his own children's names or other family members.

52:37But it's alleged that Yoo Byung-eun was the mastermind behind every single company in this web of companies. so the way that it would work is that a new company would come up company a and church believers are now investing in company a and being promised big fat returns mr yubyong un might not have any direct shares in company a he's not a shareholder of company a but the largest shareholder of company a is company b and company b is a subsidiary of holdings company c which Yoo Byung-un's two sons were controlling shareholders of. So that's why a lot of people say he's not the de facto owner of any of these businesses.

53:19But there is a connection, let's be real. So yeah, on paper, he might not even own Company A or have shares or be the CEO of Company A. But let's, he's profiting off of Company A. Now, one of these companies that started very, very early on, before even, I believe, the Odae-young incident, was a fairy company. They made boats and they originally started as just being entertainment ferry boats on the Han River. So during the Olympics in Seoul, they were just taking people around on these cute little ferry rides. And because Yoo Byung-un, the billionaire, had so many connections in government, he was able to get all these permits and all these licenses until they became like a full-blown maritime community, a company where they had cargo ships, like all of that.

54:06All of that. some former members of the church have come out to say that yubyong-eun maybe not directly but a lot of them were asked to volunteer to help build these fairies with no knowledge of how to build fairies it's alleged that in the beginning um this fairy company would use free labor from church members who had no idea how to build fairies just so they could cut down on costs it's also speculated that most of the employees that worked at this fairy company were like 99 % the church. So if anyone had any safety concerns, they would just get fired. And if you were part of the church, you probably wouldn't have any safety concerns.

54:44It's speculated because three of their ferries would end up colliding with the Mapo Bridge during a flood, killing 13 passengers and losing one passenger who is still considered missing. And this is before Sewol. So Samu trading was investigated, but formally cleared of liability. But it's just fascinating to think about considering what we're going to talk about on Wednesday's episode. Now, a former follower of this church said, working hard at these companies that were run by the church was equivalent to salvation. They considered that Bible study. They considered that singing the gospel. That was considered an act of worship.

55:18We didn't have to pray anymore. We just had to do three hours at the factory. And these are not small, cute little home businesses. These are massive ones like Chonejin Merin, the ones that owned Sewol Ferry. Pretty sizable company okay they had companies that sold toys to the general public like you would never even know that this company is run by a church you're just like that's a cute toy let me buy it they were the sole distributors of a very fancy chocolate brand called Dubois Vengala it's like a French chocolate brand it's super old it's said to have been a favorite of Marie Antoinette but they are the sole distributor in America for that chocolate brand.

55:58Yeah. The family owned an entire village in France. They had a company that sold green tea, a company that sold enema kits to cleanse people's bodies via the butt, companies that sold organic milk, makeup, auto parts, special paint for nuclear plants that have to endure radiation. They had a real estate company, the maritime boat companies. I mean, they had their fingers dipped in everything. Craft companies, tourist toys companies. It was like a spider web of shell companies and subsidiaries. What they would do is they would just buy companies that were about to be bankrupt, put in a bunch of church members, allegedly, and ask people to invest in it.

56:36It said that they were involved with at least 70 companies on three different continents, some in their own names, others through other people's names. It was so, so complicated, so complicated. They even own one of the biggest organic lavender farms in Southern California. So this is not like a cute little business idea that a church makes. It made the Yoo family one of the richest families in South Korea, but hardly anyone knew about them. They were not always in the papers like the Samsung chaebars, the Korean air chaebars. They were the billionaires with no face. They flew under their radar, but their power, influence, and money is so terrifying to think about.

57:16So the families would get paid millions of dollars through this company, even if it wasn't just through the shares. And how do you do that, you ask? The companies would make up random, okay, I don't want to say this legally speaking, but in my opinion, they would make up random reasons that they had to pay the You Billionaire family millions of dollars. So the fairy company, for example, allegedly paid You's eldest son$1.4 million for the right to use the name to one of the fairies. The other Yu family's son apparently was paid for the rights to the name Sewol, the name of the fairy that sank and killed hundreds of people that we're talking about on Wednesday.

57:52I don't know for sure if the company paid to use that name, but apparently he owned the trademark for it. So they would make up these, I don't want to say false because I guess they're accurate, but these almost unbelievable from an ethical sense reasons why they had to pay the U family millions of dollars. They're like, the U family named one of our products, so we must pay them$2 million in royalties. And that would be considered a business expense on the final papers. It just seemed like the family had a million ways to make a million dollars. And all of it seemed to fall into morally gray territory, depending on who you ask.

58:30So early on in their church, Pyeong-un acquired a failing business, Samu Trading, And then he starts adding all these new businesses. And one of the companies that was funneling massive amounts of money into Sam Wu trading was Five Oceans. So once that connection was made, Yoo Byung-un's assistant was arrested. because all the funds that passed from Odae-young to Sam Wu Trading all went through his assistant, and she was basically thrown under the bus. It came out that when Park was in debt, she was being investigated, she was on the run, and she asked Yoo Byung-eun, the billionaire that she's connected to, for help, and allegedly, he refused.

59:11There was another note found at the crime scene. A note that said, Sam Wu is also suffering. Indicating someone gave her the news that Sam Wu trading could not give her money because they too were suffering. Now, this is where it gets very tricky. You would think, okay, that's one and done. They're connected. He must be involved in something illegal, right? Yoo Byung-un was arrested in 1991 for the Five Oceans incident. But because the actual deaths of these 32 people were ruled a mass suicide, Byung-un cannot be connected to it. And the prosecutors alleged that they couldn't find any link with him and the deaths.

59:49I'm not saying the Five Oceans Company or the scams, just the deaths. Years after 32 people died, Yu Byung-un was, this is a rare occasion, he was interviewed. And he said, I just feel really insulted that people link me to the accident. Do you know how I feel? I feel like I'm a woman living in a small village. And one day I suddenly got sexually assaulted. And it's really unfair, you know? but I can't talk about it because you know Korean culture they'll just have more rumors and it gets out of control and then I'll be the one at fault that's how I feel oh what is that analogy I don't know it's the like first of all what 32 people died okay second of all but you're not a woman that's been sexually assaulted you're a rich man in a deeply patriarchal society.

1:00:40So shut up. Like what a bizarre thing to say. But Yoo Byung-eun is not connected to the Five Oceans incident legally, even though he's not. There are a lot of open questions though. Technically, the police have decided what they think happened and they think that it was mass suicide. But I don't know, just these loose ends, I don't think anyone will really know what happened in that attic. Yoo Byung-eun was convicted on charges of defrauding his church members. Prosecutors stated that he uses church funds and property to expand his own business and wealth. They said that he committed habitual fraud under the mask of religion.

1:01:16He denied those charges, but he was found guilty and thrown in prison for four years. When he got out, similar to what happens to most people that have a lot of admiration for them, his followers only believed in him more. They believed that he was wrongly persecuted. Yoo Byung-eun even recorded a sermon to his followers that said, things are tough for us right now. Other people treat us like 걸레, like rags, like dish rags. But we need to remember, blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil things against you because of me. Blessed are you. Rejoice and be glad.

1:01:58I will state again for the record, the prosecutor's office did confirm that no connection between Yubyeong-eun and the Odae-young incident with the 32 people in the attic, there was no connection. He's not legally held accountable. But there's more. After Sam Wu trading files for bankruptcy, the Yu family business is still in business and they're still continuing to operate at least like 30 different companies allegedly. According to jayber.com, they still had 30 different subsidiaries and had 13 big holding companies in other areas like the US, Hong Kong and France. And after the Odae Young scandal, people originally had no idea who this Yoo Byung-un billionaire was.

1:02:41They were like, what? A church billionaire? This is crazy. Then the incident puts him in national spotlight. And after the scandal, if you could even call it a scandal, because it's literally mass death, but the family spent tens of millions of dollars on PR, on rebranding Mr. Yoo. He stopped even recognizing the fact that he was a part of a religious group. He refused to acknowledge that he was a preacher, a church leader, a founder of a church. Instead, he became known as his pseudonym, Ahe. Ahe in traditional Korean means little child, which if we're going to put our tinfoil hats on, I know, I know.

1:03:18If we're heading into rich people conspiracy territory, what a questionable name, okay? but they reinvented him as some sort of profound artistic genius. The family donated millions of dollars to the Louvre and he has a gold plaque on the wall with his pseudonym Ahe on there as of right now still. And okay. Yeah, they started asking massive art institutions to show his pieces. He held an exhibit at the Grand Central Terminal. Oh, his own artwork. Oh yeah, his own. Not his collection. His artwork. Oh, so he paints or what? He takes pictures outside of his window. Oh, it's a photo? Yeah. It's just a photo.

1:04:01Yeah. Oh, let me tell you. Okay. Is it good? Bro, I'm about to go on a whole rant, okay? He held an exhibit at the Grand Central Terminal in New York City in 2011, which is speculated to have cost the family at least a million or two million dollars. It's speculated that the family spent another six million dollars plus to exhibit his work at the Palace of Versailles. Side note, the London Symphony Orchestra played during an event at this exhibit and they premiered a new piece, Symphony No. 6 Aje, named after him and a tribute to him, a billionaire with subpar photography skills that allegedly paid his way into this exhibit.

1:04:42Wow. The family seems very, very litigation and sue happy, but I said what I said. Art is a personal opinion and I don't think it's that great. okay it's mediocre at best and that is you can't legally get me for saying i don't enjoy someone's art okay having money does not mean that you are talented at everything that you try and that's okay he took blurry landscape photos out of his multi-million dollar estate window and he called it art so he said that he was inspired by his prison sentence staring out the window for four days and he would see the changes in nature and the world it was called through my window another one was called finding the extraordinary in the ordinary or something which like yeah okay if i'm a millionaire i better find the extraordinary in the ordinary like you better believe if i own a multi-million dollar complex the view better be nice enough for a pick or two okay but it said that after this PRV brand, Yoo Byung-eun became even more mysterious.

1:05:47It's alleged that he went into his tortured artist role. He stopped allowing photographs unless it was from his back or his side or his camera was covering the majority of his face. So there's not a lot of pictures you can find on him or his children. The whole family is very, very mysterious, which is crazy because Yoo Byung-eun's niece is actually married to one of the most influential names in K-pop. And nobody knew. who jyp and we're gonna get into it wait wait jyp is married to the family to his niece so yubyeongun's brother's daughter is jyp's second wife and they're still currently married and during this haewar fairy accident it got really crazy and we're gonna get into it and i'm not saying that he's associated with any of their shady business or religious dealings You can't even find a picture of his wife online.

1:06:40They're very mysterious. Yeah. Well, at least I couldn't find a picture of his wife online. Very, very mysterious people. But anyway, Ahe, the new man, the new billionaire, described himself on his website as an inventor, entrepreneur, philanthropist, environment activist, martial artist. By the way, he and most of his kids were black belt. Taekwondo, I believe. Painter, sculptor, poet, and photographer. His website stated the exhibitions were a way to increase public awareness of the beauty of nature and the need to preserve the natural environment. And it's fascinating to see the switch up that even mainstream news outlets have made after he was associated with this Hewere fairy tragedy.

1:07:21So after the Five Oceans incident, that was just well known in Korea. It didn't become international news. He rebranded. Everyone just knew him as this mysterious billionaire from South Korea. This artist that was giving back to nature. People, big, big institutions would write things like, The Economist wrote this. Ahed's forensic attention to detail reveals the stoicism, dignity, and minor dramas of the animals going about their daily business and raises these pictures into the realm of poetry, a kind of surrealist representation of a single day. It's really like he's lived so many different lives.

1:08:02Yes. Like, they're writing this about blurry pictures taken outside a billionaire's window. Yeah, now get this. During this time, it's alleged that Yoo Byung-un was still running tens of companies and still getting investments. And I don't know if he starts asking these companies to purchase his art or if they volunteer to, but he started selling his art to these subsidiary companies. Sometimes for as much as$22 ,000 a photo. and they would buy a lot of them. Each company would pay for tens of thousands of dollars for his art and it's alleged that part of the reason that this Hewer Ferry even sank in the first place was because of his art.

1:08:43Not fully, but it was a factor. Yeah, so I totally get it. Sometimes you want to benefit all your friends' companies and if this is a good investment, why not, right? But there's no such record of his art selling for as much or for anything in the real world. Like it was never auctioned off at Christie's or Sotheby's for any price. So very little evidence that his art had actual market value. An art curator in New York City said, my informed opinion as a museum curator for the last curator for the last 15 years is that there is no market for these works at any price. You couldn't even give them away, honestly, for free.

1:09:19So it seemed like another one of those morally gray areas of like, what's going on here? I mean, I think you and I both know what's going on, but legally, I can't tell you what's going on. Now, one of those companies that was said to have spent over$100 ,000 on purchasing his art was the failing, financially struggling boat company that owned this Hewar Ferry that we're going to talk about on Wednesday. A lot of corruption. Now, he is known as Ahe, the billionaire without the face. And then in 2014, this Hewar Ferry sinks, killing 300 plus people. Financial records detailed that the parent company that owned this ferry that was controlled by the Yu family, well, at least his two sons, they were spending millions of dollars and giving it to the Yu family and spending about$2 per employee to train them on what happens in the case of a major emergency.

1:10:08$2 in training. The entire boat capsized and nobody knew what to do. And there were so many reasons. The boat was not up to regulation. There were so many factors on why it sank and why it was as disastrous as it was. And the prosecutors, they wanted Yu Byung-un, the billionaire, to go down for the ferry. But the ever mysterious billionaire was nowhere to be found all of a sudden. And around 2014, when the ferry went down and people were looking for Yoo Byung-eun and his whole family, Oh Dae-young kept coming up too. Because people were like, wait a minute. Who is this guy? Who is this guy that we've never heard of that opens this company that's apparently part of a Chebor family?

1:10:49And why does his name keep coming up about a mass incident that happened years ago, decades ago, where 32 people were found dead in an attic. And all these connections were being made. So the whole family is nowhere to be seen. They were summoned to report to the prosecution's office. They never came, okay? They were being questioned for embezzlement, tax evasion, amongst other things. It was really bad. This was actually the biggest manhunt to date in South Korea, hunting down Yoo Byung-un and the Yoo family members. And it's actually become a sore spot. Over 10 ,000 officers were deployed. It was an internationally coordinated struggle to get everyone because a few of his kids were overseas.

1:11:32One of his kids is married to an American citizen, lives in the U.S. I think his daughter lives in Paris, so that's where she was apprehended. And it was just bad. They're just as elusive as their father. I guess they learn from the best. They're not like the rich kids on social media flaunting their wealth. Literally nobody even knew what they really looked like. So the kids get taken in, most of them. And Mr. Yu is still nowhere to be found until he's found dead. He was found dead a week after they searched his holiday home. And he was found dead in the apricot field outside of his holiday home a week later.

1:12:10So the police are like, what's going on? And the public is like, are you dumb? And the whole thing about this being a religion, while they were searching all of Mr. Yu's properties, he had a 115 acre compound where his church sat. They had freshwater farms for fish. They were really into organic farming. It's kind of giving, you know, one of those organizations. But there was a banner outside where these believers sat in front of the gate to block the 6 ,000 officers that were trying to storm the place. And the banner read, We'll protect you, Byung-un, even if 100 ,000 church members are all arrested.

1:12:48You said there were 6 ,000? Officers. 6 ,000 officers? They came in with like ground digging technology because they thought that he would have an underground bunker, tunnels for escaping, like movie style. 6 ,000 officers were involved. I'm sure some of them were delegated to paperwork and not at the site, but 6 ,000 officers were involved in the search of his 115 acre church compound. Wow. And in total, I think 10 ,000 officers were involved in the manhunt for Yoo Byung-un. One church member even screamed, I'm ready to be killed in protection for Yoo Byung-un. So yeah, I mean, they don't say that they're a cult, but like that's kind of crazy, okay?

1:13:33Now the extent of Yoo's influence, power, and money is truly terrifying. There was even a list going around while he was on the run called the Yoo Byung-un list with a bunch of names that he had been rubbing shoulders with, and they were all people in powerful positions of politics, government, media positions. So JYP, he is married to the niece of Yoo Byung-eun. So Yoo's brother's daughter is married to JYP. And just as mysterious as the rest of the family, truly, like most people that I found online didn't even know that JYP was married a second time. But again, the marriage doesn't mean that he's connected to anything shady.

1:14:05I don't want anyone to think that I'm saying that. But this was a topic of conversation that came up. JYP was in such hot water after the Sewol Ferry tragedy and this manhunt for the U family started yet to put out a statement, well a tweet rather, that said the fact that my wife is related to the owner of a problematic company is irrelevant so is this a country that can just say whatever they want now? In relation to my faith, you would know if you listen to all my interviews that I've done and the music that I've put out for the past couple of years I've studied a lot of different religions, but I have no religion I hope that no more baseless rumors start coming out due to this incident jyp was investigated for fraudulent funds there was speculation that he was also like a subsidiary that belonged to the church and maybe there were church funds going in and out of this and um it was proven to be false the company even said on record that not even a single penny will show illegal funds have flowed into jyp they also said that they will be taking strict action against people circulating or creating rumors and lies so even the prosecutor's office i mean there were a few of them on the yubyong un list the prosecutor's office so the scope of his influence amongst the elites in korea i mean is unknown now he dies they find a dead body one mile away from his little holiday home in a apricot orchard and the police are like this is the body of a man without a home so it's like a what cover-up you think they don't care or either okay the general public is saying this level of incompetence doesn't exist right yeah so it sounds sketchy right it sounds very sketchy they said also a lot of things because you know why would there be a rotting corpse of a man without a home wearing an italian made jacket with you biong's book next to him with shark liver pills yeah yeah totally like just a random man without a home and it's so close to his holiday home like why would you even think that that why would that even come to your mind i have no words right they were forced to run dna on the body and use brother and they realized it was a familial match now they released that it was a familial match they also ran fingerprints but this is where it gets crazy south koreans were like but you just told us his body was so badly decomposed there are rumors that his head was separated from his body and that you thought because he was so badly decomposed said he was a man without a home you didn't even think he was you byong-un how were his fingerprints still intact exactly there was never really a response to that but did they match the fingerprint yeah they said it is you byung-un we match dna and fingerprints but they're like how did you match fingerprints oh yeah so they were lying the first time yeah no no no we don't know if they went back and matched fingerprints yeah they're just like we did yeah oh okay so you're like okay what like we're just going off what they tell us to trust i mean it just seems like the dumbest thing ever And I'm not trying to say I'm a conspiracy theorist and I think he's alive and this is a fake body, but it's just bizarre.

1:17:06Headlines read, the incompetence of police and prosecutors is simply astounding. Astounding, I tell you. And members of his church state to this day that this was a witch hunt set by the South Korean government because they did not want to take responsibility for the tragedy. and they state that Yoo Byung-un has retired from all of his managerial positions in 1997, has focused solely on photography, and he doesn't even own shares in the ferry company. But either way, Yoo Byung-un is said to be dead. Rumors, of course, start that he's not dead. There have been sightings of him, quote, sightings of him in China.

1:17:47And I don't know because, I mean, do you really even know what this guy looks like? And like, who's saying they saw him? There's a bunch of sightings of everyone everywhere, but that's the speculation out there. Is he dead? Was he not dead? How involved is he in all of these tragedies? And how many lives did this guy live? And how many more things is he connected to that we just don't know about? And how many things are going on behind the scenes that the general public has no idea about? Because if it wasn't for the ferry accident, we wouldn't even really be talking about his connection with the Five Oceans incident.

1:18:21or we wouldn't even know all of these subsidiary shell company holdings all of that there's also another theory that he was murdered but um we're not gonna get into that so anyway there's also another theory that he's in france and on his hilltop village that he purchased so i don't know the guy has money and power everywhere so what do i know i don't know anything according to my lawyer and myself and but this is the case of the odeyang incident where 32 bodies were found in an attic and how a billionaire's name keeps popping up in that tragedy and popping up again on Wednesday. We're going to do a deep dive, but I think it was just, I felt like it'd be important for you to know who this guy is and all the things that he's associated with and how the companies that he runs are being operated.

1:19:09So I will see you guys on Wednesday to talk about the Sewer Ferry. And please stay safe. And I'll see you guys on Wednesday. Bye.