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c3, c3 church, CHC, Cho, Christian City Church, City Harvest Church, criminal activity, david cho, David Yonggi Cho, fined, fines, guilty, jailed, kong, Kong Hee, Phil Pringle, Pringle, prison, sentenced, Seoul District Court, tax evasion, Yoido Full Gospel, yoido full gospel church
The golden prosperity triangle is falling. While Phil Pringle’s protege Kong Hee is still going through court procedures of mishandling church funds of up to $40 million US, their mentor David Yonggi Cho has been sentenced “to three years in prison, suspended for five years, and ordered… to pay 5 billion won (US$4.67 million) in fines”.
Don’t forget that Cho said earlier in the investigations that he, “denied the allegations, calling them a smear campaign by a very small group of people in his church. ‘The truth will reveal itself during the prosecutors’s investigation. Those who filed the complaint will have to take responsibility accordingly.”
Not only did David Yonggi Cho smear his elders (what Kong Hee and Phil Pringle would call critics), he relies on the courts to reveal “the truth” rather deal with it biblically within the church. We have see this similar behaviour in the C3 movement and CHC. It is of our opinion that events like these reinforce the obvious factor that such men like Phil Pringle, Kong Hee and David Yonggi Cho do not behave honestly in the church.
And for teachers who always teach on faith, where is it now?
The Hankyoreh reports,
Yoido Full Gospel church leaders found guilty of tax evasion
Yoido Full Gospel Church senior pastor David Yonggi Cho is surrounded by supporters and bodyguards as he leaves Seoul District Court in Seocho district after being sentenced to three years in prison, suspended for five years, and ordered him to pay 5 billion won (US$4.67 million) in fines, Feb. 20. Cho’s bodyguards kept reporters away from Cho, struck a female reporter and destroyed a camera belong to KBS. (by Kim Bong-gyu, staff photographer)
Senior pastor David Yonggi Cho gets lighter sentence on account of his religious activities
On Feb. 20, Hon. Cho Yong-hyun with the 23rd criminal division of the Seoul District Court sentenced David Yonggi Cho, 78, senior pastor of Yoido Full Gospel Church, to three years in prison, suspended for five years, and ordered him to pay 5 billion won (US$4.67 million) in fines. Cho was charged with causing around 13.1 billion won in damages to his church and evading approximately 3.5 billion won in taxes in the process (embezzlement as defined in the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes). In addition, Pastor Cho’s oldest son Cho Hee-jun, 49, former chairman of the Yeongsan Christian Culture Center, was given a three-year prison sentence and taken into custody.
“The criminal activity would have been impossible without the approval of Pastor Cho, who had ultimate decision-making authority,” the court ruled. “By condoning the documents that were being written while he was the head of the church, he was largely responsible for these crimes.”
The court also took into consideration the fact that Pastor Cho has contributed to social welfare over the years as a religious figure, which it explained as the reason for his lenient sentence.
The court sentenced Cho Hee-jun to actual time in prison, regarding him as the mastermind behind most of the crimes, including dereliction of duty.
Cho was indicted in 2013 on charges of professional negligence and tax evasion. At the request of his son, Cho allegedly had Yoido Full Gospel Church purchase 250,000 shares of stock in I-Service held by the Yeongsan Christian Culture Center at 86,984 won per share, even though the shares were only worth 34,386 won each, resulting in a 13.1 billion won loss for the church. When a gift tax was imposed on the church’s expensive stock purchase, Cho allegedly submitted documents to the tax authorities depicting the transaction as a normal loan, evading 3.5 billion won in taxes.
Source: By Kim Mi-hyang, Senior pastor David Yonggi Cho gets lighter sentence on account of his religious activities, The Hankyoreh, http://www.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/625270.html, 21/02/2014. (Accessed 21/02/2014.)
Related articles:
David Yonngi Cho Church Fraud Investigation? (Part 1)
David Yonngi Cho Church Fraud Investigation? (Part 2)
David Yonggi Cho Church Fraud Investigation? (Part 3)
David Yonggi Cho Church Fraud Investigation? (Part 4)
David Yonggi Cho Church Fraud Investigation? (Part 5) – Sex Scandal Included?
C3 Church Watch 
I pray that God would deliver him out of this mess, renew his strength and bring glory to His name, if this is true. My heart sank when I read this today, and therefore have desired to include his deliverance in my prayer point for now. Good-hearted believers should join me in prayer for this patriarch of faith. Amen.
I agree with you and will join you in prayers for pastor cho’s deliverance. People like him are easy target for ridicule because of how God is using him.
These are parts of the tribulations christians will face irrespective of our imperfections.
Minding the magnitude of pastor cho’s responsibilities to his large church, things of this nature can easily beset him; especially in a hostile environment to pepole of God like this Country.
Are you actually saying God told him to be a thief for His Glory? PLEASE go BACK to the Holy Bible…the Holy Apostles…NO APOSTLE STOLE MONEY!
Why would you want God to deliver him? This is God allowing secular authority to punish him. Read your Bible please. Christians are repeatedly warned about false teachers in the church. PAY ATTENTION!
Reminds me of an old joke I heard when I was much younger.
A poor, small town priest goes to meet with the cardinal in the capital, and is awed by the riches on display. He asks the cardinal how can he have such riches? The cardinal answers: My son, after every service, I stand on the altar, grab the collection plates and throw them up in the air. God takes his share first, and what falls back down is his will that I keep.
And When did You Become a Judge? Know Ye not that thou art condemn and guilty of same thing Ye Judge another?
@Pan Da – that’s actually pretty funny
Sad, sad, sad. Sad because the unchurched will look at this and think it represents Christianity and the church.
Other than that, no sympathy sorry. Just like with Kong Hee getting charged. Just like Nick Dimitris going to jail (I feel for his family though). One thing I’ve learned through this, and court cases in Australia…
YOU ALWAYS GET FOUND OUT.
P.S. Come on you critics – defend him.
Generals,always are targeted by the enemy,but God will fight for him if he hamble before His Might feet.In Jesus Name. Amen!
Targeted by the enemy and deliberately breaking the law to such degree are VERY different.
Two examples of relatively good Biblical Characters who sinned and bore the consequences:
1 – King David. Sleeping with Bathsheba, and the census.
2 – Annanias and Sapphira.
Yonggi Cho might be a good man, but he has deliberately broken the law, and thus bears the consequences.
I think you could be right in saying God was merciful to him by him getting a suspended sentence…
Yonggi must thank God, he got only 3 years jail sentence, suspended for 5 years.
Jim Bakker, another AOG pastor in USA got 45 years in jail! Jim sentence was shorten for good behaviour while in prison. He now preach against Prosperity Gospel he once promoted…SEE VIDEO-
Jim Bakker Reveals the Truth About the Prosperity Gospel… — youtube.com
This is sad testimonies of a well known said YOIDO FULL GOSPEL CHURCH not only in SK but also to other evangelical and full gospel churches around the world.However, this is an AWAKENING AND WARNING to all said Servants of God in the Body Of Christ worldwide. THE GREEDINESS OF WEALTH AND MONEY, THE PRIDE OF LIFE, AND THE CONCEPT THAT AS IF YOU ARE SOMEBODY DUE TO THE REASON THAT YOUR CHURCH IS BIG AND HAVING MILLIONS…BUT ACTUALLY YOU ARE ” NOBODY” BEFORE GOD…..BECAUSE A CHURCH OR MAY THE CHURCH IS NOT YOUR OWN….THE MINISTRY IS NOT YOURS OR TO ANY SAID APOSTLES, PROPHETS, PASTORS, EVANGELIST AND TEACHERS….THE CHURCH OR BODY OF CHRIST…..WAS OWNED BY GOD HIMSELF BECAUSE BOUGHT BY THE BLOOD OF JESUS ON THE CROSS OF CALVARY.. BUT I BELIEVED… that God will fight for him…if he really repent of sins he committed, and humble himself truly before the living God….and totally surrender everything to God really of his life….and the holiness of God really indeed presence in his life…….THEN…our beloved ..Pastor David Yonggi Cho and his partners……be RESTORE BY GOD IN THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
GOD HAD ENTRUSTED TO US ” CHURCH MINISTRY OR MISSION” NOT FOR A MONEY BUSINESS, NOT INVESTMENT HERE OR FOR WEALTHY CONCEPT AS WE SEE……OUR WEALTH AND TREASURE IS IN HEAVEN……THEREFORE, WE ARE JUST A ” SERVANT OF GOD” AND HE CALLED US TO SERVE AND OBEY HIM……….AMEN AMEN AMEN…
Clegy rulling over the laity is the problem, but LordJesus warn Mt23vs1-11 but d arguments at d end time is will their be no leaders but we should learn how to lead from d apostles 1pt5vs1-4.All genuine children of God let us wholeheartedly pray for our brother in Christ.
Here’s the COMPLETE story. Trying to smear God’s anointed is not becoming of you sir.
http://www.charismamag.com/life/culture/19861-setting-the-record-straight-on-david-yonggi-cho
“Cho has raised and given personally to the church more than $170 million”. BUT..it wasn’t his money….it was money from innocent christians.
God have mercy on your servant.
I feel so sorry for our asian brothers and sisters in Christ that they have to see this, but hopefully, the blessing may be a RETURN to The Holy Bible. It is the ONLY way for Christians..it is NOT the Matrix or the 4th dimension or even the 5th.
PLEASE PRAY FOR US WE WANTS JESUS CHRIST HEALING THANK YOU VERY MUCH