KPOP IDOLS WHO BECOME ANOTHER VICTIM OF THEIR AGENCY

In the court case involving Polaris Entertainment and global IT company Donuts regarding an unreturned lease deposit, the courts have sided with the latter.

According to reports, the Seoul Central District Court ruled on October 8 that Polaris Entertainment and its CEO Lee Jong Myung must pay Donuts 360 million won (approximately $304,700) for the lease deposit, as well as additional compensation for losses incurred due to delays.

In 2017, Polaris Entertainment teamed up with Donuts to begin their girl group project for LOONA, and the agency received 400 million won (approximately $338,500) from the company as a deposit to lease a space. The suit was filed by Donuts after Polaris Entertainment only returned 40 million won (approximately $33,850) and did not return the remaining amount of 360 million won.

Donuts stated, “We invested 3.5 billion won (approximately $2.96 million) with the promise that LOONA would appear on the ‘My Live’ broadcast, which is run by our company. Not only did the agency fail to return the deposit, but they also did not faithfully keep their promise about LOONA’s appearance. Only one member of LOONA appeared on ‘My Live’ and the promise for the other members to appear on our show was not kept. That is why we have filed a lawsuit for the return of our investment, and we are preparing to file for separate criminal charges as well.”

Polaris Entertainment stated, “Regarding the contract of the leasing deposit and its related lawsuit, even our agency has not received the deposit back yet and we plan on returning it to the company once we have received it ourselves.” On the agency not fulfilling their promise to have LOONA appear on the program and the lawsuit filed by the company for their investment, the agency explained, “The lawsuit regarding this matter is still ongoing and the outcome will be determined in the courts.”