[Info②] Yoo Kwang-hyeon paid 15B plus won as additional cost (2026-05-28)

[최종근]

[Information provided②] Chairman Yoo Kwang-hyeon paid “over 15 billion won as additional cost” rather than receiving “delay compensation for construction extension” (2026-05-28)

Regarding the construction of The Ocean Aqua Garden in Yeosu, it would have been standard procedure for Chairman Yoo Kwang-hyeon (Chairman of Hanju Group and CEO of The Ocean Resort) to receive damage compensation for the construction delay from “EXA E&C Co., Ltd.”, which failed to complete the work within the contract period.

However, Chairman Yoo Kwang-hyeon increased the construction budget by at least 15 billion won on three separate occasions and paid it to EXA E&C, citing construction delays as the reason. The figure of 15 billion won is estimated based on EXA E&C’s publicly disclosed documents.

This appears to be a case in which the Unification Church power elite applied to EXA E&C the same typical method they had previously used through Sunwon Construction to siphon company funds by artificially inflating construction costs.

Such a decision could not have been made solely by Hanju Group Chairman Yoo Kwang-hyeon; it is presumed to have been carried out through collusion among those responsible for the Unification Church at the time, including Jeong Won-ju, Vice President of the Cheonmu Won; Lee Cheong-woo, Director of the Mission Policy Office; and Yoo Kyeong-deuk, Chairman of the Unification Foundation.

The background to this lies in the fact that on June 6, 2024, all organizations of the Unification Church were centralized under Cheonmu Won, and the Unification Foundation, which manages corporate entities, was also transitioned to a system under the direct management of Cheonmu Won.

Furthermore, around October 2024, the Financial Planning Division of Cheonmu Won was reorganized, and Cheonmu Won was restructured to operate under the leadership of Director Lee Cheong-woo.

Furthermore, attention must be paid to the fact that around July 2023, a construction project worth over 10 billion won—a project unique to the Unification Church—was awarded to a company other than Sunwon Construction.

While Sunwon Construction is said to have deliberately sought court receivership in February 2024, the company was still operating normally as of July 2023.

Nevertheless, the fact that The Ocean Resort went out of its way to find a company called “EXA E&C” rather than Sunwon Construction to award the contract suggests there was some special reason, and the decision to increase the construction cost to an abnormally high amount and pay it out is an extremely serious issue.

◆ Disclosure of the increased contract amount one year after the construction contract was signed

The details of the single sales and supply contract that was publicly announced on October 30, 2024 by “EXA E&C”—the company that won the bid for The Ocean Aqua Garden project— include the following note under the section “10. Other Matters for Reference in Investment Decisions”:

“This public notice is being issued because the contract concluded in 2023 (July 20, 2023) was increased in amount, causing the amount to exceed 10% of the sales revenue of the immediately preceding fiscal year.”

Based on this, it can be inferred that the contract amount agreed upon on July 20, 2023, was within 15 billion won. This comparison is based on the construction cost of 10.45 billion won for the “Magnolia Meotjip” project in Kapyeong.

Additionally, “EXA E&C” reported sales of 226.7 billion won in 2022 and 179.9 billion won in 2023.

If the initial construction contract amount had been 18 billion won or more, the disclosure obligation would have already arisen in early 2024. However, the fact that the disclosure was made on October 30, 2024, implies that the increase in the contract amount occurred after that date.

◆ “EXA E&C” is a company specializing in interiors and interior partitions

On July 20, 2023, The Ocean Resort in Yeosu awarded the contract for The Ocean Aqua Garden project to “EXA E&C,” a company specializing in interiors and partitions.

 According to the “EXA E&C” website, the company obtained its civil engineering license in February 2026.

In other words, despite the fact that “EXA E&C” was a company with no experience in ancillary civil engineering work or structural framework construction at the time the contract was awarded (July 2023), Chairman Yoo Kwang-hyeon still selected this company and awarded the contract to it, which would cause someone to suspect there must be a special reason behind this decision.

Furthermore, the biggest problem is that the construction cost was inflated to an abnormally high amount and paid out.

http://www.exaenc.com/page/company/summary.php  (website)

While there are limitations to comparing the 2023 construction costs with those from 2017, in terms of scale, The Ocean Aqua Garden project covered an area of 1,500 pyeong, while the total floor area of the Kapyeong “Magnolia Meotjip” project was 5,892 square meters (1,812 pyeong), with a construction cost of 10.45 billion won.

When the Unification Foundation contracted with Sunwon Construction in 2016, the construction cost for “Magnolia Meotjip” was 4 billion won, but by 2017, when construction was completed, it had increased by as much as 6.45 billion won; it appears that “Aqua Garden” followed this same pattern.

◆ Increase in Construction Cost Due to Extension of Construction Period

Yoo Kwang-hyeon, Chairman of Hanju Group, signed a construction contract for The Ocean Aqua Garden project on July 20, 2023, with “EXA E&C”—a company specializing in interior construction and partitions, not a general construction firm—and subsequently signed an amendment contract to increase the construction cost, citing an extension of the construction period as the reason.

Amendments were made at least three times, and the total increase is estimated to be at least 15 billion won.

1. It is estimated that the initial construction contract with “EXA E&C” was signed on July 20, 2023, for approximately 15 billion won

The breakdown of changes in tangible assets in the 2023 The Ocean Resort audit report lists “assets under construction” as 8.1 billion won.

This amount is believed to include the funds invested when converting the Kapyeong “Magnolia Meotjip” into an Aqua Garden, as well as the construction costs for The Ocean Aqua Garden in Yeosu.

Although there was a 3.4 billion won increase in “structures,” it is unlikely that the interior and exterior construction work on “Magnolia Meotjip” was accounted for as structures.

Land and buildings also increased, but this represents the book value upon transfer of ownership and does not reflect actual cash outlays.

According to a public notice issued by “EXA E&C” on October 30, 2024, regarding The Ocean Aqua Garden construction contract signed on July 20, 2023, it states that “due to the increase in the construction cost, the amount exceeded 10% of the sales revenue of the immediately preceding fiscal year, triggering a disclosure obligation.”

Taking this into account, the [Unification Church Anti-Corruption Monitoring Committee] estimates that the initial construction contract amount between The Ocean Resort and “EXA E&C” was within 15 billion won, and that at the time of the contract amendment on October 30, 2024, the contract amount became 23 billion won that was an increase of at least 8 billion won.

In my next post, I would like to provide a detailed explanation of the increase in the construction cost resulting from the extension of the construction period.

2026-05-28

Choi Jong-keun

[Unification Church Anti-Corruption Monitoring Committee]

*As this document was generated by AI, it may contain typos or mistranslations.

■ [Info] The Ocean Aqua Garden Contract Increased by 9B Won ① (2026-05-27)

https://cafe.daum.net/antiuccorruption/cRwZ/24

■ Need of “Legal Action” against “Jeong Won-ju” and her associates who forced 200 billion won illegal lending (2026-05-26)

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■ Borrowing of The Ocean Resort 240 billion won? – Yoo Kwang-hyeon, former chairman of Hanju Group, says, “I will not become the second Yoon Young-ho.” (2026-05-22)

https://cafe.daum.net/antiuccorruption/ZXsd/1525

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■ UC Reorganization for Jeong Won-ju ⑥ — Director Kim Eun-sang (a Key Figure in the 60 Billion Won Gambling Scandal) / Special Prosecutors Summon President Han Hak-ja on the 8th (2025-09-05)

https://cafe.daum.net/antiuccorruption/as2X/558