The Trial of Father and Mr. Kamiyama

Charles Stillman, Esq.
April 1, 1982

Judge Goettel listens as a bank employee testifies. Father's attorney
Charles Stillman is shown at the left.
NewsWorld artist's sketch by Sue Tuttle.

Following are some of the points made by Mr. Charles Stillman, Father's defense attorney, in his opening address to the jury at the opening of the trial of Father and Mr. Kamiyama, April 1.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have the privilege this morning of appearing before you as the attorneys for Reverend Moon. With your cooperation and patience over these past several days, we have completed the task of selecting you as jurors. You now become the judges of the facts.

No one has the right to question your beliefs because, in this country, they are the sacred and fundamental rights of every person. You are being asked to judge another human being whose beliefs are different from yours. He has the right to be judged on what, he did or didn't do and for no other reason.

The government will go first. They will try to prove their case. After that, we will present our case. If you don't wait to hear our side it's a little like making pancakes; if you don't turn it over and cook the other side it's not a pancake.

It was in 1954 that Reverend Moon was inspired to form the Unification Church. His message read from his homeland as his followers traveled to other countries. They went to Japan and other countries, and people accepted the message and were willing to join the church.

In the early 1970's, with a handful of church members, Reverend Moon determined to launch a major evangelical campaign here. Members of the church in other countries came here to help as missionaries because Reverend Moon's belief was that America symbolized the free world and was the most important place on earth to establish the base for a religious movement.

The missionaries, together with Americans, devoted themselves to preaching, to raising funds and starting businesses in an effort to provide a financial base for the church. They did this by selling flowers, marble vases and ginseng tea.

Ask yourself what kind of people are they? See them as students, see them as hard-working young people -- some not so young anymore, which will surprise you -- and I suggest that you will be pleasantly surprised to see the character and integrity of the people before you.

Early 1972 there was a meeting of the church leaders in San Francisco. There it was decided to accomplish the goals I just mentioned and to ask members from other countries to come here and help. At the meeting it was decided that a bank account would be opened for the receipt of the money coming to America. The account would be held in the name of the person who was the personification and spiritual leader; who, in a very real sense, was the Unification Church International -- Reverend Sun Myung Moon.

The real issue here is whose money was it?

That money was used to buy things for the church. Money came from that account to use for investments for the church, to send missionaries elsewhere and to aid in the church's work -- and decisions were not made by Reverend Moon off by himself somewhere, the decisions were made in consultation with responsible leaders of the church.

When the account was closed, the balance went into a corporation which had then been formed, called Unification Church International. We will see that the assets, the money and the businesses all belonged to the church.

Tong Il was a company formed by church members to import and sell ginseng tea. Stock was issued in Reverend Moon's name to symbolize his participation on behalf of the church. This stock, like the money in the bank, was later transferred from his name to the Unification Church International.

One of the church members went to the largest accounting firm in the world to prepare Reverend Moon's returns for 1974 and 1975. The accountants were told about both the bank account and the stock.

The government will try to prove that Reverend Moon had a great faculty with the English language. Why is this important? If Reverend Moon didn't have the understanding of English to follow the instruction booklet -- which he never saw -- then how in heaven's name could he have knowingly filed a false return!

The government made a big thing about cash being used, and I'm sure they used that word cash for a very deliberate reason. The evidence will show that in the Orient, the use of cash is far more frequent than here; those folks over there don't use credit cards and checks the way we do. Cash was used, but that doesn't make it bad.

I say, most respectfully, that you cannot allow your feelings about large sums of money to influence you. Churches need money to grow and maintain themselves. You might not like the idea of a church raising money through fundraising and businesses -- these might not be the methods your church uses -- but members of this church have a right to go out and work hard to raise money for their church. That's the way it has to be in America.

I think you will find as you listen to the evidence, ladies and gentlemen, that Reverend Moon came to America to preach his message; he didn't come here to cheat the USA out of tax money.

I respectfully suggest to you that after you have heard both sides of the story, the fair verdict will be "Not Guilty."

Thank you.