Image courtesy of WikiMedia Commons / Glabb

newyorktimes.com | Article Link | by Choe Sang-Hun, Martin Fackler, Alison Leigh Cowan and Scott Sayare

SEOUL, South Korea — After all the lavish galas in his honor at landmarks like the Louvre and Versailles, the tens of thousands of devotees following his religious teachings for decades, the hundreds of homes and businesses reportedly stashed around the globe, Yoo Byung-eun ended up alone, his body splayed on its back and rotting in the weeds, empty liquor bottles by his side.

Weeks before, nearly 10,000 police officers had raided his church’s compound in the largest manhunt in South Korean history, armed with backhoes to dig up underground hiding places, only to leave empty-handed. They had almost caught him once, it turned out, but Mr. Yoo slipped away, hiding in a secret room behind a wall in a distant villa, almost $1 million in two suitcases at the ready.

After a lifetime of craving recognition, of building a flock that showered him with cash and helped fund a business empire selling everything from toys to ships, Mr. Yoo found his moneymaking machine brought more than his own undoing, prosecutors say. It also contributed to one of the worst peacetime disasters in the nation’s history — the sinking of the ferry Sewol in April, which killed 304 passengers, the vast majority of them high school students.

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