South Korea sexual exploitation activist charged with fraud and embezzlement News
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South Korea sexual exploitation activist charged with fraud and embezzlement

South Korean prosecutors on Monday charged Yoon Mee-hyang with fraud and embezzlement related to her time as head of the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan. Yoon stepped down from the organization to run for her current seat in Parliament.

It is alleged, among other things, that Yoon used government subsidies for her own benefit, spending hundreds of thousands of US dollars on personal purchases, and that she compelled a victim with Alzheimers disease to donate to her organization. She has been charged with eight counts of fraud and embezzlement.

The organization was formed to support “comfort women,” the women who worked in Japanese wartime brothels. The issue is a source of tension between Japan and South Korea. Yoon’s organization played a role in nullifying a 2015 settlement between the two countries.

Yoon stated that she intends to prove her innocence at the trial.

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