Singer Park Hyo-shin, who’s all set to take the stage next month for the 10th-anniversary run of the musical Phantom, is now caught up in some legal drama with his old agency.
As reported by SPOTV News on the 25th, Park’s being sued by some folks from his former agency over fraud and obstruction of business. The charges fall under the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Aggravated Punishment, etc. of Specific Economic Crimes.
So here’s the deal — former CEO Mr. A from Glove Entertainment, along with a few shareholders, went ahead and filed a complaint with the Yongsan Police Station in Seoul on the 7th of this month.
According to Glove Ent., Park got new shares through paid-in capital increases not once, but twice — once in May 2016 and again in August 2018. They’re saying that these shares were split between Park and others, including Mr. A.
The real twist? The plaintiffs are claiming, “Park Hyo-shin deceived his close associate Mr. B, who was not well aware of the company’s situation, into believing that the shares owned by the plaintiffs were held in trust under his name, even though no actual nominee agreement existed. This led Mr. B to mistakenly believe that Park Hyo-shin was the actual owner of the shares.”
They didn’t stop there. They also said, “At the extraordinary shareholders’ meeting in March 2022, Park Hyo-shin directly exercised the voting rights for the shares owned by the plaintiffs, appointing three of his associates as directors and taking control of the company’s management. At the extraordinary shareholders’ meeting in August 2023, he used the voting rights of the plaintiffs’ shares to remove Mr. A from his position as director.”
Basically, the plaintiffs are saying this whole thing looks like a ‘triangular fraud’ situation — y’know, where someone tricks one person but someone else ends up taking the hit.
Now, Park’s reps did respond, saying, “It is true that the former CEO has filed a civil lawsuit against Park Hyo-shin regarding the shares, but we are not aware of any criminal charges of fraud being filed.”
Thing is, this ain’t Park’s first time dealing with legal trouble — this marks his fifth time being tangled in a courtroom mess.
Way back in 2005, Park had signed an exclusive contract with Nisshi Entertainment Group. But by 2006, things went south, and the agency sued him and his manager for a whopping 1 billion KRW (approximately $750,000), accusing him of bailing on the contract. That eventually got sorted out when Park gave back the full contract fee, and both sides dropped their lawsuits.
But it didn’t end there. In 2008, Interstage came after him for damages, and then again in 2014 for dodging forced execution. Fast forward to 2019, and a businessman also accused Park of fraud — said Park took off with more than 400 million KRW (approximately $300,000) worth of luxury stuff like a car and a watch.
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