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functioning of the judicial system, which are the concern of

this Subcommittee.

BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY

Takeru Kamiyama, whose prosecution is described in detail below, is and has been for some years, one of Reverend Moon's closest associates.

1/

A longstanding member

of the Unification Church, Mr. Kamiyama served as a financial adviser to the International Unification Church during the years covered by the Internal Revenue Service's Federal tax investigation and the prosecution described 2/ herein.

Mr. Kamiyama is a native Japanese. At the time he arrived in the United States, 3 he could not speak English. He therefore managed the day to day administrative functions of the Unification Church with the aid of several American assistants. Similarly, at the time of his prosecution, Mr. Kamiyama could not communicate in English. Because of his extensive knowledge of the financial affairs of the

1/

Before coming to the United States in November 1972, Mr. Kamiyama served on the Board of Directors of the Unification Church of Japan and held the position of Director of one of that organization's twelve geographical regions.

Unification Church, however, Mr. Kamiyama was summoned before the Federal Grand Jury investigating the income tax practices of Reverend Moon, the Church's spiritual leader, in March, 1981. Although Mr. Kamiyama did not testify at that time, he did submit an affidavit to the Department of Justice, which detailed the manner in which funds were accumulated and disbursed in the context of various religious programs maintained by the Church.

Subsequently, on July 9, 1981, Mr. Kamiyama made

his first appearance before the June 1980 Additional Grand

Jury, sitting in the Southern District of New York.

Mr. Kamiyama could not complete his testimony, however, and was instructed by the prosecutor to return on July 16, 1981, even though the prosecutor knew that the June 1980

Additional Grand Jury would be on vacation at that time. 4/

Mr. Kamiyama, accordingly, appeared for the second time on July 16, 1981 and testified before the July 1981 Regular Grand Jury. He completed his testimony, appearing for the third time, on July 21, before the July 1981 Regular Grand Jury during its morning session, and before the June, 1980 Additional Grand Jury that afternoon. Thereafter, on

July 30, 1981 and August 11, 1981, the prosecutor,

Mr. Martin Flumenbaum ("Mr. Flumenbaum") read Mr. Kamiyama's

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transcribed testimony to the June 1980 Additional Grand

Jury.

Mr. Kamiyama was indicted by the June 1980 Additional Grand Jury on October 15, 1981. In that original indictment he was charged, inter alia, with five counts of false swearing in violation of 18 U.S.C. $1623. Three of the five counts were based upon testimony before the July 1981 Regular Grand Jury.

5/

Mr. Kamiyama was irreparably prejudiced by the

prosecutor's simultaneous utilization of two different Grand Juries. As a result of this awkward and unnecessary practice the indicting Grand Jury did not have an opportunity to observe Mr. Kamiyama's demeanor.

Moreover, as noted above, Mr. Kamiyama could not speak English at the time of his Grand Jury appearances. His testimony, therefore, was not presented directly to the Grand Jury. Instead his testimony was interpreted by Mr. John Mochizuki, a Japanese-English interpreter retained by the Office of the United States Attorney for the Southern

5/

This indictment for false swearing in a foreign language is apparently unprecedented. The Church has been unable to locate any such prior cases. Indeed, even the Court conceded that the circumstances of Mr. Kamiyama's case were "unique." P. 310.

6/

This procedure was unnecessary, because, as the prosecutor knew, the June 1980 Additional Grand Jury was scheduled to return shortly after July 16, 1981. 37-38, infra.

See, P.

6

7/

District of New York.

During this interpretation

process, questions posed in English by the prosecuting

attorney were interpreted into Japanese, and Mr. Kamiyama's responses in Japanese were subsequently interpreted back

In this

into English for consideration by the Grand Jury. manner, communication between Mr. Kamiyama and the prosecutor was totally dependent upon the skill and judgement of the interpreter, as was the Grand Jury's understanding of that communication.

From virtually the time the indictment was returned, counsel for Mr. Kamiyama objected to the

utilization of Mr. Mochizuki's interpretation translation as the basis for the indictment's false swearing counts. These objections, reflected in Mr. Kamiyama's December 7, 1981 Motion to Dismiss the Indictment, were grounded upon an independent analysis of certain audio tapes of

Mr. Kamiyama's Grand Jury testimony, made and preserved by 8/ the Government as the best evidence of his testimony.

7/

Mr. Mochizuki's methods and qualifications are analyzed in detail at Section A, infra. In addition, the inadequacy of Mr. Mochizuki's translation is examined at Section C, infra.

8/

The prosecutor insisted upon recording Mr. Kamiyama's Grand Jury testimony. Thus, on July 16, 1981, the prosecutor advised the Grand Jury:

Just so that the record is clear, we are going to
tape record in addition to having the Court

(Footnote Continued)

41-269 O 85

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Such analysis revealed that the interpretation of the prosecutor's questions and Mr. Kamiyama's responses cited within the indictment contained numerous substantive errors which effectively altered the meaning of the dialogue presented to the Grand Jury. The prosecutor thus committed a serious error by proceeding against Mr. Kamiyama on the basis of the Grand Jury interpretation, without first attempting to analyze the audio tapes.

Apparently in response to Mr. Kamiyama's

allegations of translation error, the Government retained an independent Japanese-English translator, Mr. Eisuke Sasagawa ("Mr. Sasagawa"), for the purpose of reviewing the aforesaid tapes. Mr. Sasagawa subsequently testified before the Grand Jury with respect to his translation analysis at least once, 9/ on December 15, 1981. However, because Mr. Sasagawa was

(Footnote Continued)

Stenographer here. We are going to tape record
the witness' Japanese answers in the event
that in the event that those answers may become
important at a future time, we will have the exact
words that he said, in addition to the
interpreter's interpretation of those words.

Copies of these audio tapes were made available to
Mr. Kamiyama pursuant to Rule 16, Federal Rules of Criminal
Procedure.

9/

Mr. Sasagawa's testimony on December 15, 1981 was based upon his review of selected portions of Mr. Kamiyama's testimony. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Sasagawa's review was extended to the entirety of Mr. Kamiyama's testimony. It is unclear, however, whether Mr. Sasagawa testified with regard to this more general analysis.