Latest / Journey to the Fringe / Fringey Mini: Crime, Cult & Cartera

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Fringey Mini: Crime, Cult & Cartera · Journey to the Fringe

• 0:00
  Okay, Chelsea. Yeah. Once again, you're going
• 0:02
  to get an option. But instead of giving you a
• 0:06
  vague idea of what the article is about, I'm
• 0:09
  going to give you the source. And you can pick
• 0:12
  from the source. Yes. I like the style. I don't
• 0:15
  know why, but I like it. Now, I think it's because
• 0:17
  it's more random. Yeah. So first up, we have
• 0:19
  Live Live Science, which we never know. We will
• 0:23
  never look it up. We will never know. Popular
• 0:26
  Mechanics, BioRxiv. BBC, Daily Mail, ARS Technica,
• 0:35
  The Register. I'm fishing for something, so I'm
• 0:38
  going to go BBC. Okay. Oh, and you are not getting
• 0:43
  what you're expecting here. Damn it. So, article
• 0:49
  on the BBC from September 22, 2025, written by
• 0:53
  Kelly Ng. I never know how to say that. It's
• 0:56
  a Vietnamese last name and it has no vowels.
• 0:59
  So ing, I don't know. Article title, Mooney's
• 1:03
  church leader arrested over gifts to ex -South
• 1:06
  Korean first lady. Oh, okay. Yeah. Not what I
• 1:09
  was looking for. Yeah. I didn't think you would
• 1:11
  pick this. So it was kind of a trick in there.
• 1:15
  Actually, you probably would have picked it if
• 1:17
  I described it because I would have said an update
• 1:18
  on a cult. So. South Korea has arrested the leader
• 1:22
  of the controversial Unification Church over
• 1:24
  allegations the organization bribed South Korea's
• 1:27
  former first lady in exchange for business and
• 1:29
  political favors. Han Hak -ja's church is accused
• 1:32
  of giving Kim Kyung -hee, the wife of ousted
• 1:36
  President Yoon Suk -yeol, two Chanel bags and
• 1:39
  a diamond necklace together worth 80 million
• 1:42
  won or $60 ,000. American. Okay, that's not that
• 1:46
  much. Well, it is, but... Two bags and a necklace.
• 1:52
  Yeah. Han, the 82 -year -old widow of the church's
• 1:55
  founder, Sun Myung Moon, has repeatedly denied
• 1:57
  the allegations, calling them false. The church
• 1:59
  said Tuesday it would faithfully engage with
• 2:02
  authorities, end quote, do its best to use this
• 2:05
  as an occasion to restore trust in our church,
• 2:08
  end quote. It also apologized for, quote, causing
• 2:11
  concern to the people, end quote. Prosecutors
• 2:14
  had sought an arrest warrant for Han on four
• 2:16
  charges, including improper solicitation and
• 2:19
  graft and occupational... Huh. I've never heard
• 2:23
  those terms before. Neither have I. It doesn't
• 2:27
  matter. We'll keep going. In court on Monday,
• 2:29
  Han rejected the charges, insisting that she
• 2:31
  has neither interest in nor knowledge about politics.
• 2:35
  Her lawyer argued against the arrest, citing
• 2:38
  her age and worsening health. I like that. So
• 2:40
  she's friends with the First Lady and she's arguing,
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  oh, I'm not political. I just give my friends
• 2:44
  good stuff. Yeah, that's a good argument. That
• 2:47
  is a good argument. I'm just an idiot who inherited
• 2:49
  this church worth billions. Yeah, like I just
• 2:53
  give nice gifts. Han is also accused of colluding
• 2:56
  with former church official surnamed Yoon. to
• 2:59
  offer 100 million won in bribes to conservative
• 3:02
  lawmaker Kwon Sung -dong ahead of the 2022 presidential
• 3:05
  election in exchange for favors for the church
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  in the event that Yoon won... Sorry. I thought
• 3:12
  this was the last name. It's not. It's Yoon won
• 3:16
  the election, not won. Okay. No, Koreans are
• 3:20
  funny. It's all very confusing. Yes. Kwon, once
• 3:24
  seen as a close confidant of Yoon... was arrested
• 3:27
  last Wednesday. He denied accepting bribes. And
• 3:30
  I honestly think, this is unfortunate, why we
• 3:33
  don't know more about Asian history and famous
• 3:37
  stories is because we get confused by the characters
• 3:40
  because their names are not something we're expecting.
• 3:42
  It's not like Chris gave Jeff. It's Kwon was
• 3:47
  a close confidant of Yoon. Which is like the
• 3:50
  same equivalent in Korean. Probably. There's
• 3:53
  a billion Kims and Wons over there. Those are
• 3:57
  kind of equivalents, but whatever. So, Kwon,
• 3:59
  once seen as a close confidant of Yoon, was arrested
• 4:02
  last Wednesday. He denies accepting bribes. Unification
• 4:05
  Church had pinned the blame for both sets of
• 4:08
  allegations involving Kim and Kwon on the former
• 4:10
  church official, saying he acted alone in offering
• 4:13
  those gifts. The official has since been arrested.
• 4:15
  Kim, the former first lady, was indicted last
• 4:18
  month on various charges, including bribery and
• 4:20
  stock manipulation, which she denies. Her trial
• 4:23
  started this week. Her arrest marked the first
• 4:26
  time that both a former president and former
• 4:28
  first lady had been jailed in South Korea. Yoon
• 4:31
  was detained in January and is facing a separate
• 4:34
  trial over a failed martial law attempt last
• 4:37
  year that plunged the country into chaos and
• 4:39
  led to his impeachment. Which, by the way, if
• 4:41
  you're not up to date on Korean politics, they
• 4:44
  had a wild 2024. Basically, they had a guy who
• 4:48
  kind of tried to pull a Trump, but the people
• 4:50
  rebelled against it and he ended up in prison.
• 4:53
  That sounds vaguely familiar, but I'm just so
• 4:56
  exhausted from everything that's been going on
• 5:00
  in the world. There's enough politically in English
• 5:02
  to focus on. But that does sound very familiar,
• 5:06
  actually, now that you're saying that. Yeah,
• 5:08
  he declared martial law and everybody's like,
• 5:10
  no, that's stupid. We're going to protest. And
• 5:12
  then he's like, Kate, I just pretended. I didn't
• 5:15
  actually mean to do that. And then he got arrested.
• 5:18
  No, no, I do know this one. Yes. The Unification
• 5:21
  Church, known formally as the Family Federation
• 5:23
  for World Peace and Unification, was founded
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  in South Korea in the 1950s by Moon Seung -myung,
• 5:28
  who proclaimed himself the Messiah. The church
• 5:30
  is best known for holding mass weddings involving
• 5:32
  thousands of couples. We kind of know this. Please
• 5:34
  go listen to our episode. I can't remember if
• 5:37
  it's their own episode or if it had to do with
• 5:39
  the Japanese history. No, I don't think we did
• 5:43
  a full episode on it because right now I'm going,
• 5:46
  this sounds familiar, I should know it, but I
• 5:48
  don't think we actually did. episode well the
• 5:51
  reason we did the episode we do have something
• 5:54
  i think the whole reason we did the episode on
• 5:56
  the moonies is because somebody who the moonies
• 6:00
  ripped off ended up um assassinating um uh oh
• 6:04
  uh shinzo abe the former prime minister of japan
• 6:08
  and then we ended up talking about the moonies
• 6:10
  am i listening to this in the right language
• 6:12
  it's never the right language chelsea for english
• 6:16
  is not pure Yeah, yeah, no. Moonies have come
• 6:21
  up. Did they get their own episode? You guys
• 6:24
  go look and tell us. Anyhow, that's, I'll incorporate
• 6:27
  that in the 48 hours thing. Don't worry. Critics
• 6:30
  have described the group. Also take a thumbs
• 6:31
  up. Yes. Your guys' thumbs don't seem to work,
• 6:35
  by the way. No. Critics have described the group
• 6:39
  as cult -like. Lawyers have accused it of coercing
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  devotees known colloquially as Moonies after
• 6:44
  its founder to donate large sums of money. The
• 6:47
  Unification Church has come under the spotlight
• 6:49
  in Japan after the 2020 new... Oh, there we go.
• 6:51
  The 2022 assassination of the country's former
• 6:54
  leader, Shinzo Abe. The alleged assassin blamed
• 6:57
  the group of bankrupting his family and held
• 6:59
  a grievance against Abe for allegedly promoting
• 7:02
  it. The group is banned in parts of the world,
• 7:04
  including Singapore. In Japan, it has been ordered
• 7:06
  to dissolve. End of article, end of story, end
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  of... I don't know why I... It didn't end in
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  a quote, so I just need to say end. It ends there.
• 7:17
  I just love when people who are incredibly rich,
• 7:21
  incredibly influential, argue, oh, what? I didn't
• 7:26
  know that. How was I to know that? 60 ,000, this
• 7:31
  was just a friend. I mean, what's wrong with
• 7:34
  that? Maybe they are just friends and they do
• 7:36
  give nice gifts. I like to think of myself as
• 7:39
  a nice gift giver. Is your defense not also giving
• 7:42
  her nice things and they don't mention that at
• 7:45
  all? Maybe. Like, it's a two -way street with
• 7:48
  friendships. A one -way street is bribery. Yeah,
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  but no. What if my friend is poor? They still
• 7:54
  give you stuff. Friendship? Yes. That's what
• 7:58
  the poor first lady of South Korea was given.
• 8:03
  She didn't know. She's not political. I would
• 8:05
  hope that she was giving friendship if I was
• 8:08
  giving nice gifts. Otherwise, that's pretty hurtful.
• 8:12
  Otherwise, she should be sued for bribery. I
• 8:15
  would think. If anything, she was taking advantage
• 8:20
  of the Moonies. I agree. Exactly. Did I just
• 8:25
  argue on the wrong side? I don't know. It's really
• 8:29
  confusing with these Korean names. I know. Anyhow,
• 8:32
  you guys got 48 hours. Relisten as many times
• 8:35
  as you need to figure out who's who in this story.
• 8:37
  Yeah, probably listen to the Moonies ones too.
• 8:40
  Yes, and then relisten the Moonies ones and then
• 8:42
  come back and make sure we did a good job. Anyhow,
• 8:44
  bye. Bye.