Sun Myung Moon by the governments of both North and South Korea. Businesses he promoted included News World Communications, an international news media corporation known for its American subsidiary "The Washington Times", and Tongil Group, a South Korean business group (chaebol), as well as various related organizations. Moon was born in what is now North Korea. When he was a child, his family converted to Christianity. In 1947 he was convicted by the North Korean government of spying for South Korea and given a five-year sentence to the Hŭngnam labor camp. In 1954, he founded the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of
United States v. Sun Myung Moon United States v. Sun Myung Moon In 1984, Sun Myung Moon, the founder and leader of the Unification Church, was imprisoned in the United States after being found guilty by a jury of willfully filing false Federal income tax returns and conspiracy. Church members and supporters stated that the prosecution was politically motivated, discriminatory, and unfair. On October 15, 1981, Moon was indicted by a federal grand jury and charged with three counts of willfully filing false Federal income tax returns (for the years 1973, 1974, and 1975) under , and one count of conspiracy—under —to file false income tax