Here’s an interesting e-mail that was sent to both Spectator editor-in-chief Nick Lollini and myself yesterday afternoon from an SU student who will remain anonymous:
Hello,
My name is _____, and I'm going to be a sophomore at SU this fall. I just wanted to bring attention to the Spectator staff [of] an upcoming martial arts business right outside Seattle University on 12th Avenue. As I walk past the Lee Center, I see it many times on the other side of the street: an old building being repainted and renovated to look like an old Chinese building advertising the opening of a new martial arts school to train the mind. The martial art is called Oom Yung Doe and is started by a man referred to as "Grandmaster" Kim.
I recently started looking up more about this martial arts style, and I have found really questionable things about the organization. It seems like this martial arts group is more like a cult. Many crimes and controversies including exorbitant charges and mind control have been attributed to this group. It is said that they have changed their ways since a big lawsuit several years ago, but as a student at Seattle University, I feel that I have the responsibility to warn others to really research into the topic more before choosing to join it for convenience (since it is right outside SU).
This isn’t the first I’ve heard of Oom Yung Doe. I used to live down at
8th Avenue and Madison Street, and about a block up Madison – between
Yoshino Teriyaki and
Pho Saigon Restaurant – was the last incarnation of the school (which has since
closed down relocated). I never went inside, but I often walked by and looked at the retro black and white photographs of Asian men
jumping through the air with their eyes closed.
The head of the school had his own office located right near the window, and I often saw him sitting, fully robed, behind his desk. When his students would speak to him, they were always
standing in the doorway to his office. I never once saw them go inside. Is this because they need permission to enter the
lair of the master? Can’t say, but that’s definitely my guess.
The writer who sent the above e-mail also included
these links to
provide what he considers
evidence of Oom Yung Doe’s potential cult status. There is a lot of good information worth reading here, and I really recommend checking it out and coming to your own conclusion. It is important to note that the accusations made in the e-mail are not proven. But the more you read, the more questions pop up.
If nothing else, the costs associated with participating seem absurd. A
King 5 investigation in 2005 pointed out how
expensive belonging to Oom Yung Doe really is:
Twenty-six-year-old Mike Rothwell is studying the time-honed movements
of Tai Chi, the ancient Chinese art form.
But last year, the Seattle resident belonged to another martial arts
school called Oom Yung Doe, a bone crushing form of self-defense.
Rothwell says all it broke was the bank.
"Let me add it up real fast. Roughly $9,000, plus $8,000, that's
$17,000. I took seven seminars that averaged $500 dollars," Rothwell
said.
All that money gone in about a year of training.
"I've lost at least $20,000," he said.
Another former student - who didn't want to give his name - says he lost
$30,000 in months.
His payments included $9,300 up front for a black belt program, $9,000
more for a master intern program and a $1,000 testing fee.
A $1000 testing fee?! With that much money from each student, you'd think that at the very least the school's organizers would pay their taxes. Apparently not, says King 5:
Our investigation reveals Oom Yung Doe's roots are planted in a criminal
past through a man named Robert Sawinski, a part owner of the
Seattle-area chain.
Sawinski is one of a dozen instructors of the martial art - then known
in Chicago as Chung Moo Qwan - that served federal prison sentences in
the mid 1990s.
In news reports and in court, Chicago prosecutors alleged that the
nationwide schools had a cult-like atmosphere as they made the case that
founder, John C. Kim, [Spectator editors note: "Grandmaster" Kim?] skimmed millions of dollars of profits in a tax
evasion case.
What do you think? Has anybody who reads this blog had any experience with the school of Oom Yung Doe, either locally or outside of Seattle? If you have, please share. If there really is a story here, then it will likely be developed into an investigative piece for
The Spectator once school starts up again. The more information we have going into it, the better. I'd imagine that, if these allegations are true, letting students fall into the supposed financial and emotional traps of Oom Yung Doe is the last thing Seattle University administrators would want.