Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
Yang Hyun Suk, the former CEO of YG Entertainment, was in court recently in relation to the allegations that he threatened a whistleblower* in order to cover up former iKON member B.I‘s drug case. In this instance, he pleaded with the judge by citing his decades of alleged good behavior and positive influence on Korea’s reputation.
*Note: The whistleblower is Han Seo Hee and she’s only named here because she came forward herself.
At the decision trial held on the same day at Seoul Central District Court, former CEO Yang addressed Judge Cho Byung-gu and stated, “the legal part was fully explained by the lawyer but I can tell you that A (Han Seo Hee)’s public whistleblower report is not true due to past history.” He continued, “I debuted with Seo Taiji and Boys at the age of 23. JINUSEAN, 1TYM, Big Mama, Wheesung, Gummy, Se7en, Lexy, 2NE1, Big Bang, WINNER, iKON, Lee Hi, AKMU … we have discovered and nurtured countless singers and I have personally served as the executive producer for BLACKPINK who are popular all over the world. I have put all of my energy into nurturing junior singers for the past 27 years. Many singers discovered over the past 27 years are YG artists. I have not once heard that anyone suffered or was disadvantaged because of it. That fact that A, who’s not a celebrity is claiming I said I would kill her is just incomprehensible to common sense.”
Emphasis mine.
Uh, I think there are a lot of people out there who would dispute that.
Regardless, it’s not like he was “nurturing” them out of altruism anyway, he did it to make money. Also, I’m not even sure how much that so-called reality would even apply to this case, since the whole point is that he was allegedly threatening a nobody in order to protect one of his artists.
More amusing, he pleads for leniency partially based on him helping Korea’s image.
He then asked the judge, “Please make a wise decision so that we can add at least a small and insignificant force to the K-pop singers who raise Korea’s prestige.”
The way these companies use their capitalistic ventures as some kind of nationalistic pride thing to shield them from the fuckery they do on the way to the top is always something to behold.
Anyway, the prosecutors are requesting a three-year sentence.
“Considering the fact that CEO Yang called A into a closed office at night and asked her to reverse her statements about B.I saying “It’s nothing to kill you…,” it’s clear that he was threatening A with harm that caused fear. We’re asking the court to sentence him to 3 years in prison. The charges have been sufficiently clarified.”
Will he get that? I doubt it.
Regardless, given that they’ve admitted there was a meeting and that the whistleblower changed testimony after that meeting, it seems painfully naïve to believe nothing happened there.
