Richard Perea, president of Times Aerospace Korea and Washington Times Aviation USA, hurried to Seoul last week in connection with a legal dispute involving his company.

“I received word that throughout the Korean media, articles were published claiming that Moon Hyun-jin was suing his mother,” Perea said in an interview. “The case referred to is a lawsuit that Washington Times Aviation USA had filed against the Mission Foundation to recover over $21 million that was transferred from WTA to the Mission Foundation without authorization.”

Moon is the chairman of UCI, the parent company of WTA USA.

“To see the lawsuit described as a son suing his mother concerned me. It is not only inaccurate but is, in effect, a malicious distortion of the facts,” he said.

WTA and its sister firm TAK have been building a large-scale factory and helicopter landing facility in Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province, under the plan valued at 220 billion won ($202 million). So far, 170 billion won worth of investment has been made.

Once the Gimpo Aerospace Industrial Complex is completed, Perea said the project would create 600 new jobs and a world-class helicopter maintenance facility. But the project hit a snag as Joo Dong-moon, former president of WTA and TAK, allegedly ordered an illegal transfer worth $21 million from the corporate account to the Mission Foundation for the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification run by Moon’s mother.

Perea claimed that WTA’s lawsuit, however, is being depicted as a case that threatens to break up the trust among family members, and not as a business issue.

Perea expressed his hope that the damaged reputation of Moon Hyun-jin would be restored and the issue settled smoothly so that the Gimpo Aerospace Industrial Complex project could be finished as planned.

(insight@heraldcorp.com)