An investigative team of Yoido Full Gospel Church on Sunday announced that founder and Emeritus Pastor Cho Yong-gi is responsible for its failed investment incurring 33.5 billion won ($29.1 million) in losses.

The announcement is expected to further escalate the internal feud between the board of seniors and the Cho family at the world’s largest network church. Last year, 29 elders filed complaints against the Cho clan for dereliction of duty.

The ad-hoc fact-finding body of 12 elders reported to 1,319 fellow elders the result of their probe into two of 11 suspicions raised against Cho and his eldest son, Hee-jun, former chairman of Kookmin Ilbo newspaper.

They found that the younger Cho pressured his father to approve the church’s purchase of 275,000 stocks of Service, a company he owned, in 2002. The stock, valued at 10 won per share, was purchased at more than 20 billion won.

After having laundered the money through several investments, Cho bought Youngsan Art Hall, owned by the church. The church had to pay an additional 10 billion won to save the “worthless company” and pay a gift tax, the committee said.

Cho Hee-jun is believed to have orchestrated the plan to recover the 20 billion won deficit he racked up in 2000 with unsuccessful stock investments. The money came from church members’ donations to operate Kookmin Ilbo.

He is also accused of asking his father to approve the church’s splurging of 3 billion won in Mac Capital Investment, another company he also owned. The company in 2004 was slapped with billions of won in fines by the Board of Audit and Inspection for misappropriation of funds.

Kim Seong-jun, head of the committee, said the Cho family has violated a principle rule of the church: subjecting all investment deals to approval by the internal council.

“Members of the council said they have not dared to remind the senior Cho of appropriate procedures for investment. One of them said if Cho wants something, he should get it. Not a single issue was raised against the deals,” he said.

The investigative committee consisted of those unrelated to the ongoing legal battle between the church seniors and the Cho clan. The result is expected to deal a blow to Cho’s family, who have allegedly played authoritative roles in the church after establishing and developing the institution for 39 years.

Cho Yong-gi, hailed as the father of Korean evangelicalism, has been accused of appointing his cronies to the church’s top posts and attempting to peddle his influence to the church management even after he had announced his retirement in 2008. Reporters from the Kookmin Ilbo have staged a general strike of 158 days protesting Cho family’s intervening on the selection of articles and misuse of company funds. Cho Yong-gi, Hee-jun and Yong-gi’s second son, Samuel Min-je, were indicted in 2011 for misappropriation of company funds and dereliction of duty on a separate occasion.

A total of 29 elders of the church filed complaints last September against two of them and asked the senior Cho to step down from all church affairs and cease preaching.

The church spokesman declined to comment about the elders’ report.

By Bae Ji-sook (baejisook@heraldcorp.com)