Citizen Group Files Prosecutor Complaint Against Nanumui Jip Chairman for Misuse of Donations

Chairman of Civic Group Nanum-ui Jip and Others Prosecuted by Prosecution
Suspected of Violating the Donation Act, Breach of Trust, Embezzlement, etc.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Jung-yoon] Officials of the Japanese Military Comfort Women Victim Support Facility 'Nanum-ui Jip' have been reported to the prosecution for collecting large sums of donations and using them for real estate purchases and other purposes.

The civic group Halbindan announced on the 12th, "We have reported Song Wol-ju, the chairman of Nanum-ui Jip and current and former facility directors, to the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors' Office on charges including violation of the Act on Collection and Use of Donations, violation of the Act on the Management of Subsidies, fraud, embezzlement, and breach of trust."

According to the investigation results released on the 11th by the Nanum-ui Jip public-private joint investigation team, Nanum-ui Jip raised approximately 8.8 billion KRW in donations from 2015 to 2019, but only 200 million KRW of this was sent to the nursing facility where the victim grandmothers live. Even this amount was spent as indirect expenses for facility operation rather than direct expenses for the grandmothers. Of the donations, 2.6 billion KRW was used for land purchases, expansion construction of the living quarters, construction costs for the relic exhibition hall and memorial hall, and for the formation of assets of the operating corporation. The remaining donations were confirmed to be reserved as funds for the International Peace and Human Rights Center and the construction of a nursing home.

Halbindan also argued, "Emotional elder abuse, such as verbal abuse against severely ill grandmothers who are unable to communicate or move, must be subjected to legal judgment from the perspective of human rights protection."

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