Jail Time for Big Hit Blackmailer + Calls for Reported to Resign!
So, first part of the controversy is this: A CEO was sentenced to one year in prison for "blackmailing Big Hit Entertainment, threatening to reveal information to the public about alleged illegal marketing by the agency." Basically, Big Hit used a company 2 years ago to do marketing for them, then suddenly the company (that was financially struggling) came back and said they were going to release this ~secret~ about Big Hit unless they paid them a lot of money (approximately $291,000) Big Hit was like, wtf, and they said they have nothing to hide (the 'secret' was related to illegal marketing allegedly) They said: โBig Hit has nothing to hide, so as soon as we became aware of the situation, we filed a report with the police and actively cooperated with investigations.โ
โIf Big Hitโs reputation ends up being damaged by these claims and reports, despite the our immediate handling of the situation by filing a report and cooperatingย with police, then there will be no entertainment agency in the future that can take appropriateย measures in the face of blackmail.โ
โWeโre very sorry to the BTS members and ARMY for the alarm that was caused with this issue. We will do everything we can and carefully manage our business partners and contractors to prevent something like thisย from ever happening again.โ The CEO was found guilty for blackmail and was sentenced to a year in jail. Now, for the second part of the controvery: There is one reporter, Jeon Won, who works for a site called xsports who hates BTS with a passion. She heard the report about the marketing company finding "illegal marketing practices" and posted about how that is PROOF that BTS bought their Billboard award and that they should return it, that BTS are cheaters. *eye roll* Here's what she wrote: โWith the accusations of illegal marketing practices, BTSโ eligibility for the โTop Social Artistโ award comes to suspicion. The winner of the award is determined by the hashtag votes and BTS has received more than 300 million. However, some netizens are now questioning the legitimacy. If the marketing took place with the use of part-time employees (to increase votes), then itโll be fair for BTS to return the trophy.โ You can hear her voice here from a press conference. She's the same reporter who clamined that BTS cheated on winning awards on music shows and she also announced one of their comeback dates before Big Hit did (which is a shitty move as a reporter). Now #์์คํฌ์ธ _์ ์๊ธฐ์_์ฌ๊ณผํด (XSports_ReporterJeongWon_Apologize!) is trending WORLDWIDE. Since the "illegal marketing practices" were found to be lies, that means her only evidence that the Billboard Awards were bought is not true people want her to apologize but so far all that has happened is her article has ~disappeared~ Glad BTS won this round but jeez, when will people learn?!
