SEOUL // Thousands of South Korean policemen stormed a church compound on Wednesday in their hunt for a fugitive billionaire businessman over April's ferry sinking that left more than 300 people dead or missing.
Authorities believe the businessman, Yoo Byung-eun, owns the ship and that his alleged corruption may have contributed to the sinking. Police and prosecutors have been after Mr Yoo for weeks and are offering a 500-million-won (Dh1.8m) reward for tips about him.
Mr Yoo, 73, is a member of a group called the Evangelical Baptist Church, which critics say is a cult.
About 5,000 policemen, some wearing helmets and armed with plastic shields, raided the group’s compound in Anseong, just south of Seoul.
Four church members were detained for allegedly providing shelter to Mr Yoo or helping him flee, police said. Another church member was detained for allegedly trying to obstruct the raid.
It was not clear whether Mr Yoo was at the compound at the time of the raid. Police said they were still trying to find and detain more church members for allegedly aiding Mr Yoo.
The compound, the size of about 30 football fields, is considered the church’s headquarters and thousands of church members gather there for services on weekends. The area contains ranches, fields, a fish farm and an auditorium that can house up to 5,000 people.
About 200 church members rallied against the raid, singing hymns, pumping their fists into the air and chanting slogans.
Mr Yoo, head of the now-defunct predecessor of the ferry’s current operator, Chonghaejin, allegedly still controls the company through a complex web of holding companies in which his children and close associates are large shareholders. The government has offered a 100m-won bounty for Mr Yoo’s eldest son, and one of his daughters was arrested in France late last month.
The predecessor company went bankrupt in the late 1990s but Mr Yoo’s family continued to operate ferry businesses under the names of other companies, including one that eventually became Chonghaejin.
Mr Yoo’s church made headlines in 1987 when 32 people, who critics suspect were church members, were found dead in the attic of a factory near Seoul in what authorities said was a collective murder-suicide pact. The church has denied involvement.
* Associated Press
