Reply #19: The Dark Side of Rev Moon... [View All]

Kerry Attacker Protected Rev. Moon

By Robert Parry
October 15, 2004

Carlton Sherwood, who has produced an anti-John Kerry video that will be aired across the United States before the Nov. 2 elections, wrote a book in the 1980s denouncing federal investigators who tried to crack down on Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s illicit financial operations.

In retrospect, Sherwood’s book, Inquisition: The Prosecution and Persecution of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, appears to have been part of a right-wing counter-offensive aimed at discouraging scrutiny of Moon and his mysterious money flows. The strategy largely succeeded, enabling Moon to continue funneling hundreds of millions of dollars into the U.S. political process, most notably to publish the ultra-conservative Washington Times but also to make payments to prominent politicians, including former President George H.W. Bush.

New evidence also makes clear that Moon resumed his practice of laundering money into the United States after serving a 13-month prison sentence for a 1982 conviction for tax law violations. Former Moon associates, including his ex-daughter-in-law, have disclosed that Moon’s organization smuggled cash across U.S. borders, but those admissions have not led to renewed federal investigations.

Indeed, the pummeling of federal investigators who examined Moon’s financial schemes in the 1970s and early 1980s – and Moon’s enormous clout among conservatives in Washington – have made the South Korean theocrat something of a political untouchable. The congressional investigators, who first uncovered Moon’s financial irregularities, and the federal prosecutor, who narrowed that evidence into a successful prosecution for tax evasion, were made into cautionary tales for others thinking about challenging Moon.

Accused Investigators

Government investigators, including former Rep. Donald Fraser and ex-federal prosecutor Martin Flumenbaum, were accused by Moon defenders of offenses ranging from a lack of patriotism to racial and religious bigotry. Sherwood, a former Washington Times reporter, was among the Moon defenders who lashed out at Fraser and Flumenbaum, portraying them as unscrupulous witch hunters who abused their investigative authority.

In Inquisition, Sherwood claimed he had examined the financial records of Moon’s organization and found nothing improper, concluding that Moon and his associates “were and continued to be the victims of the worst kind of religious prejudice and racial bigotry this country has witnessed in over a century.” Sherwood portrayed Moon as a religious martyr.

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http://www.consortiumnews.com/2004/101504.html