The joint investigation team of the police and prosecution, which is investigating allegations of corruption related to collusion, has detected signs that Kwon Seong-dong, a lawmaker from the People Power Party, received large sums of donations from the Shincheonji Church. They are focusing their investigative efforts on collecting related testimonies and physical evidence.
The joint investigation team has secured bank account details showing that Bae Mo, an aide to Lee Hee-ja, the president of Geunwoo, and Go Dong-an, the former chief secretary, sent donations to Representative Kwon in 2023-2024, after Yoon Seok-yeol was elected president.
In particular, it is reported that in 2024, hundreds of thousands of won were transferred from Go’s personal account to Lee’s account.
The investigation team is paying attention to the possibility that Shincheonji’s leadership might have used Lee as a ‘lobby channel’ to provide political funds to Kwon, then considered one of ‘Yoon’s close associates’, to expand their political influence.
Recently, the investigation team summoned a former Shincheonji instructor as a reference to look into the internal circumstances within Shincheonji at the time of the donation, the information conveyed by the leadership, and how the former chief secretary raised the funds.
It has been previously reported that Lee donated a total of 10 million won to Representative Kwon in 2023 and 2024, and another 10 million won to former People Power Party lawmaker Park Seong-joong, who was classified as a ‘pro-Yoon’ faction, in 2022 and 2023.
There are also suspicions that in January 2024, thousands of young Shincheonji members attended an event where Kwon announced his bid for re-election to a fifth term, allegedly encouraged by the Shincheonji leadership to attend.
Kwon Seong-dong, a lawmaker of the People Power Party, is reported to attend the first trial at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho-gu, Seoul, on charges of receiving illegal political funds from the Unification Church on November 3, 2025.