Yoo Byung-eun, known by the art name Ahae, was a South Korean clergyman, businessman and photographer.
35 Facts About Yoo Byung-eun
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Yoo Byung-eun, who retired from his board position at Chonghaejin in 1997, was targeted in official communications prior to the conclusion of any investigation to manage public outrage and maintain government stability.
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Yoo Byung-eun was born in Kyoto, Japan to Korean parents on 11 February 1941.
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Yoo Byung-eun's family returned to Korea following the liberation from Japanese colonial rule in 1945 and settled in Daegu, where Yoo Byung-eun graduated from Seonggwang High School.
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Yoo Byung-eun was one of 11 students admitted to the Good News Mission Bible school established in Korea by American and English missionaries, but he was expelled.
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Yoo Byung-eun founded what later became the Evangelical Baptist Church of Korea, known as the Salvation Sect, in 1962 with his father-in-law, Pastor Kwon Shin-chan.
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Yoo Byung-eun took over as CEO in 1978, and turned it into a toy manufacturing and export company.
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Yoo Byung-eun came to public attention in connection with the Odaeyang mass suicide in 1987.
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Yoo Byung-eun was cleared of any liability for the incident.
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In France in 2012, Yoo Byung-eun made headlines prior to his photo exhibition in the Tuileries Garden at The Louvre when he through his public relations company, Ahae Press, bought the abandoned village of Courbefy for.
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Yoo Byung-eun had seen it on CNN, and wanted to set up an "environmental, artistic and cultural" project in the village.
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Yoo Byung-eun has a wide range of other business interests according to official documents and information on company websites.
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Yoo Byung-eun owns a plantation in the United States called 123Farm, one of the largest organic lavender farms in California started in 2001 at the site of the Highland Springs Resort, a 2,400 acres property consisting of a 56-room hotel, conference center, and restaurants.
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Yoo Byung-eun was chairman of the board of the company that bought the resort in May 1990 for million.
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UK in London, Yoo Byung-eun has exhibited and marketed himself as the photographer who goes by the name Ahae.
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Yoo Byung-eun first exhibited Through My Window in the Vanderbilt Hall of Grand Central Terminal, New York City, in April 2011; co-produced by daughter Yoo Byung-eun Som-na's company Moreal Design, it was organized by Hemato-Centric Life Institute, and sponsored by Highland Springs Resort and Bear Family Green Club.
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Yoo did not attend the exhibition that was unveiled by his second son, Yoo Hyuk-kee, known outside South Korea as Keith H Yoo.
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Yoo Byung-eun's photographs were to be projected during a gala concert at Theatre Imperial de Compiegne on 4 July 2014.
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Yoo Byung-eun was the head of the family who partially own Chonghaejin Marine, and is believed to have exercised influence through a web of company cross-shareholdings.
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The Prosecution secured video footage of a lecture Yoo Byung-eun delivered to the sect's believers in April 2010, in which Yoo Byung-eun admitted to have registered properties under the names of other persons.
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Contrary to the claims that Yoo Byung-eun was the owner and chairman of the Sewol ferry, it was later confirmed by the Press Arbitration Commission in Korea that he had retired from the executive board in 1997, had no ownership, and no involvement with the management of the ferry company.
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Yoo Byung-eun was charged with embezzlement, breach of trust and tax evasion.
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Yoo Byung-eun made no known public appearances after the Sewol sank.
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Yoo Byung-eun was held at the Fresnes Prison and was projected to bring her extradition case to the French Supreme Court, or even to judicial authorities of the European Union, which could have delayed her repatriation up to one year.
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On 2 June 2017 the appeal on the extradition order for Yoo Byung-eun Som-na was rejected by the highest administrative court in France, and on 7 June 2017, she was arrested by South-Korean officials at the Charles de Gaulle airport, aboard a plane from Korean Airlines bound for Korea.
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Local media outlets said Yoo Byung-eun's middleman made asylum enquiries at the embassies of the Philippines, the Czech Republic, and Canada.
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Oh is currently under review by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs's disciplinary committee for allegations that he abused his authority to help Yoo Byung-eun hold a photo exhibition in France and other European countries.
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Yoo Byung-eun has been the CEO of a door-to-door sales company, Dalgubeol, in the southern city of Daegu.
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Yoo Byung-eun was the biggest shareholder of four affiliates of the family businesses, including the holding company of the operator of Sewol, I-One-I Holdings.
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Yoo Byung-eun is suspected of collecting billions of won in "consulting fees" from the firms and creating a slush fund.
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Yoo Byung-eun was supposed to appear for questioning at the Incheon District Prosecutors' Office, but failed to show up.
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Yoo Byung-eun was placed on the most-wanted list amid fears that he would flee the country.
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Yoo Byung-eun is suspected of helping his father establish a slush fund through paper companies.
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Yoo Byung-eun reportedly attempted to make his way to France but didn't get on his booked flight.
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Yoo Byung-eun was wearing an "expensive Italian jacket", and surrounding his body was "a copy of a book he had written, an empty bottle of a shark liver oil health tonic manufactured by a Yoo Byung-eun family company and several empty bottles of alcohol".