Founder of the Unification Church and one of his advisors were charged with making and subscribing false federal income tax returns, conspiracy to file false returns, and conspiracy to obstruct grand jury investigations. The advisor was also charged with, inter alia, perjury. On defense motions to dismiss, the District Court, Goettel, J., held that: (1) defendant's claim that indictment's tax counts were legally insufficient was mooted by filing of superseding indictment; (2) defendant made no showing that the Government did not make exculpatory information contained in certain affidavits known to the grand jury or, more importantly, that the testimony of those additional witnesses might reasonably have been expected to lead the grand jury not to indict; (3) Government has no threshold obligation, before seeking a perjury indictment, to take reasonable steps to insure that an erroneous answer by a witness is in fact an intentional lie and not merely a mistake or product of faulty memory; and (4) questions and answers relating to defendant's ownership of certain stock and relating to bank accounts in that defendant's name could not be deemed immaterial to grand jury's investigation into whether the defendants had violated federal tax law. Order in accordance with opinion. See also, D.C., --- F.R.D. ---.
William M. Tendy, Acting U. S. Atty., S. D. N. Y., New York City, Atty. for plaintiff; Jo Ann Harris, Senior Litigation Counsel, Martin Flumenbaum, Asst. U. S. Atty., New York City, of counsel.
Stillman, Friedman & Shaw, New York City, Caplin & Drysdale, Washington, D. C., for defendant Moon; Charles Stillman, Julian Friedman, New York City, Bernard Bailor, Washington, D. C., of counsel.
Andrew M. Lawler, New York City, for defendant Kamiyama.
The Reverend Sun Myung Moon is the founder and spiritual leader of the Unification Church, a church with approximately two million members in 120 countries around the world.[FN1] Takeru Kamiyama is a member of the Unification Church and an advisor to Moon. The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity (HSA-UWC) is the corporate embodiment of the Unification Church in the United States. HSA-UWC was incorporated in 1961 as a California not-for-profit corporation and was granted tax exempt status by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in 1963. At the times relevant to the present case, the activities of the Unification Church in New York State were conducted by a separate entity, the Unification Church of New York (UCNY). UCNY began as an unincorporated association and later became incorporated as a New York not-for-profit corporation.[FN2] HSA-UWC assumed the responsibilities of UCNY in 1976.
FN1. Durst Affidavit P 12.
Although it is not relevant to the pending motions, we note that there is a discrepancy as to what year UCNY became incorporated. The Indictment alleges that UCNY became incorporated in March 1974. Dr. Durst, the President of HSA-UWC, states that UCNY was incorporated in April 1973.
On October 15, 1981, a federal grand jury indicted Moon on charges of making and subscribing false federal income tax returns in 1973, 1974, and 1975, conspiracy to file false returns, and conspiracy to obstruct the investigations of these tax returns being conducted by the federal grand jury and the United States Attorney. These charges revolve around checking and savings accounts at the Chase Manhattan Bank, in Moon's name, in which.$1.6 million was allegedly deposited from March 1973 through December 1975 and $50,000 of stock in Tong I1 Enterprises, a company that imports ginseng tea and other merchandise from Korea. The Government alleges that these accounts and stock were owned by Moon personally and that he failed to report the receipt of this stock and the interest earned on the bank accounts as taxable income on his tax returns. The Indictment also names Kamiyama in the conspiracy and separately charges him with aiding and abetting in the preparation and presentation of Moon's allegedly false tax returns, obstruction of justice, causing false documents to be submitted to the United States Department of Justice, and giving false testimony to the grand jury. On December 15, 1981, the grand jury returned a superseding indictment that adds an additional perjury count against Kamiyama and makes certain changes in the language of other counts.
The defendants have made a number of substantive and procedural motions, many of which have already been decided.[FN3] Several motions remain outstanding. Moon moves to dismiss the tax counts on the ground that they are legally insufficient and to dismiss all the counts on the grounds of prosecutorial misconduct and abuse of the grand jury process. Kamiyama, in addition to joining in Moon's motions, moves to dismiss the perjury counts on the grounds that his answers before the grand jury were not material, that the questioning of him was unfairly tailored to extract inaccurate answers, and that the interpreter in the grand jury proceedings failed to translate his testimony properly.[FN4]