THE BOYZ - JU HAK NYEON
Cha Ga Won, representative of ONE HUNDRED, who had unilaterally expelled JU HAK NYEON, former member of the boy group “THE BOYZ”, and demanded compensation for damages of around 8 billion won, suffered a crushing defeat in court.
According to the investigation results on July 23, the 28th Civil Division of the Seoul Central District Court (Presiding Judge Shin Yongmoo) dismissed the plaintiff in the lawsuit for damages of approximately 8 billion won filed by ONE HUNDRED against JU HAK NYEON, and rendered a judgment on July 16 setting that legal costs be borne by the plaintiff. The court clearly stated:
“The plaintiff’s claim against the defendant is groundless.”
Previously, when JU HAK NYEON went to Japan to attend an awards ceremony in June last year, a controversy erupted when a local Japanese media outlet caught him drinking and having physical contact with person “A”, a former Japanese adult film actress. Subsequently, unfounded rumors even emerged in Korea claiming that JU HAK NYEON had engaged in prostitution with this person. However, it was concluded that JU HAK NYEON was not suspected of any prostitution charges.
The problem is that when the controversy erupted, representative Cha Ga Won notified JU HAK NYEON of the termination of his exclusive contract, claiming this as corresponding to “conduct damaging dignity to the point of causing a major impediment to artistic activities“, a ground for termination provided by the exclusive contract, and filed a lawsuit for damages amounting to 8 billion won, which is more than 5 times the amount of the exclusive contract deposit of 1.5 billion won. The expected income during the contract period (about 1.6 billion) and the penalty for breach (about 5.1 billion) were also included.
However, the court ruled in favor of JU HAK NYEON. The most disputed point in this lawsuit was whether JU HAK NYEON had committed “conduct damaging dignity as a popular culture artist to the point of causing an impediment to artistic activities“, a ground for termination of the exclusive contract. The court estimated that this was not the case.
The court emphasized: “The fact that JU HAK NYEON met person “A” falls within the realm of private life and may constitute inappropriate behavior for an idol group member, but cannot be considered a serious act of damage to dignity”, “The prostitution suspicions were subject to a decision of non-referral by the police and the publication of the prostitution suspicions was prosecuted for defamation. Synthesizing these elements, this does not constitute a sufficient reason to terminate the exclusive contract due to a breakdown of the trust relationship.”
While adding: “It is difficult to consider that a reason for termination according to the exclusive contract exists solely based on the evidence submitted by Cha Ga Won’s side, and there is no evidence to recognize this. Consequently, the claim for damages by the plaintiff assuming the termination of the exclusive contract of this case does not need to be examined”, thus rejecting the claim for damages.
Regardless of this, representative Cha Ga Won is currently the subject of a police investigation under charges of fraud under the Act on Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes, and is entangled in several exclusive contract termination lawsuits.
Representative Cha Ga Won is suspected of having proposed projects using the intellectual property (IP) of her agency’s artists to 3 companies including Nomus Co., Ltd., of having received a deposit worth 30 billion won, and then not executing the actual projects. The financial crime investigation team of the regional investigation unit of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, which is investigating this case, requested a third arrest warrant against representative Cha Ga Won on July 22 for suspicions of fraud under the Act on Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes.
Representative Cha Ga Won is also suspected of embezzlement. The 9 members of THE BOYZ, SANGYEON, JACOB, YOUNGHOON, HYUNJAE, JUYEON, KEVIN, Q, SUNWOO, ERIC, who won the injunction to suspend the effectiveness of the exclusive contract filed against ONE HUNDRED, filed a complaint last April against Cha Ga Won for suspicion of embezzlement under the Act on Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes. This case is also currently under investigation by the financial crime investigation team of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency.
Apart from the cases under investigation, she is at the center of several controversies. Due to management that is difficult to understand, representative Cha Ga Won plunged Big Planet Made Entertainment, ONE HUNDRED, and INB100 into a state of capital deficit, failed to pay singers’ settlements or employees’ salaries, and did not pay the 4 major social security contributions. The agency’s singers filed applications for an injunction to terminate their exclusive contracts one after another and separated from her.
Representative Cha Ga Won is also suspected of having forced executives and employees to write letters of waiver of prosecution on the condition of paying them their salaries.
Journalist: Shawn
Translator: Shawn
Source: Korean medias
