Sun Myung Moon, Korean minister and head of a global business empire which includes seafood giant True World Foods, has died in South Korea’s Cheongshim Hospital, owned by the Unification Church he founded. Reverend Moon was either 92 or 93 years old (reports differ). His secretive but vast business interests sell “cars, guns, newspapers and sushi” around the world, according to Businessweek.
About that sushi:
“Moon has purchased and controlled a number of seafood companies around the world, including True World Foods, a wholesaler that distributes sushi and other seafood to more than 8,000 Japanese restaurants around the U.S. Moon has also claimed holdings of seafood and shipbuilding companies in Alabama and Alaska…..”
— “Sein Reich war von dieser Welt [“His kingdom was of this world”],” Patrick Zoll, Neue Zürcher Zeitung
Like the wholesaling operation, some of those restaurants are owned by the Unification Church through Unification Church International Inc. (UCI), as are fishing boat shipyards, fleets of fishing boats and refrigerated trucks, fish processing plants, and real estate in fishing ports, according to an investigation by the Chicago Tribune. Affiliates also operate in Alaska, Korea, Japan, Canada, and Spain.
The parent True World Group also builds and repairs pleasure boats as well as fishing boats and wholesales Asian groceries and home decorating products. That firm is controlled in turn by the Tongil Group, a chaebol or Korean-style multinational conglomerate founded by Reverend Moon. After his passing, determining ownership and control of the family-run chaebol will be like trying to untangle a badly-snarled tuna fishing line. Oh, True World Group sells fishing tackle, too.
More:
“Sushi and Rev. Moon,” Monica Eng, Delroy Alexander and David Jackson, Chicago Tribune
True World Foods Tsukiji Express Seafood Products
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Tags: business, Rev. Moon, Reverend Moon, seafood, Sun Myung Moon, sushi, Tongil Group, True World Foods, True World Group, Tsukiji Express, Unification Church
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