U.S. Threatens Fiji Aid Over Human Trafficking by Doomsday Cult

The U.S. government is threatening to downgrade Fiji to the lowest tier in its global human trafficking rankings unless authorities take “decisive action” against a religious group linked to human trafficking and transnational organized crime, OCCRP reported.

In a statement to OCCRP, a State Department official said the move could put millions of dollars in development assistance at risk. Under the threatened change, Fiji would be reclassified as “Tier 3” in the State Department’s Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report, the lowest possible ranking, alongside countries such as Cambodia and North Korea.

The pressure campaign follows the reported escape since late last year of at least four U.S. citizens, including two children, from a doomsday cult known as the Grace Road Group. The cult, which can be traced back to South Korea, has over the past decade become one of Fiji’s most powerful conglomerates, operating supermarkets, beauty salons, restaurants, and other businesses on the island-nation, OCCRP said.

The State Department’s most recent TIP report, published in late September, singled out Grace Road for the first time, stating that the group’s roughly 300 members in Fiji “experience conditions indicative of human trafficking,” including allegations of forced excessive work hours without rest days, physical violence, passport confiscation, and unpaid wages.

Fiji Police told OCCRP that between 2024 and 2025 they forwarded four investigation files related to human-trafficking allegations at Grace Road to Fiji’s Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), including two files tied to complaints by U.S. citizens. An ODPP media liaison officer confirmed the office is currently reviewing the four files.

A Tier 3 designation could cut off all non-humanitarian U.S. assistance and could also lead Washington to press lenders such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to end funding to Fiji, the news outlet said. The State Department official said has until the end of March to show improvements or face automatic downgrading.

The U.S. warning is the strongest threat yet faced by Grace Road, which relocated to Fiji from South Korea in 2014 to prepare for what it believes will be a nuclear Armageddon, OCCRP said.

The group’s leader, Ok-joo Shin, remains imprisoned in South Korea after being arrested in 2018 and convicted of crimes including child abuse, assault, and fraud, according to the report. Grace Road has continued to expand in Fiji, including recently announcing plans to open a 60-room hotel in the country’s Western division.

OCCRP also describes allegations from former members provided in reports to police by U.S. citizens, including a teenage boy.

The reports describe “slave-like” work conditions in cult-owned businesses and alleged beatings for infractions such as falling asleep during sermons. They also describe rituals of violent public humiliation referred to as “the threshing floor,” in which members allegedly formed a circle and physically assaulted individuals to purge supposed demonic possession.