MBC ‘PD Notebook’ capture
MBC ‘PD Notebook’ focused on the abnormally structured, massive jeonse loan arrangements involving agency artists Lee Seung-gi and Baekhyun around a luxury villa owned by the side of Chairman Cha Ga-won.
According to the MBC ‘PD Notebook-MC Mong and the K-pop Business Secrets of the Chairman’ episode aired on the 2nd, the luxury villa was constructed by Pimo Group, which had been led by Chairman Cha Ga-won, and it was found that Lee Seung-gi and Baekhyun have been residing there with jeonse deposits of KRW 10.5 billion and KRW 16.0 billion, respectively. The program reported that the maximum amount of the loan claim on one unit, originally taken out under the names of Chairman Cha and his spouse, was only around KRW 3.6 billion. However, in the process of converting this into jeonse loans under the names of Lee Seung-gi and Baekhyun, the loan size swelled abnormally to more than three times.
Moreover, the institution that executed these huge loans in the KRW 10 billion range was not a major financial institution in Seoul, but a fisheries cooperative located in Wando, South Jeolla, which deepened suspicions. The cooperative explained the review process for the KRW 16.0 billion loan to Baekhyun by saying, “Internally, we look at the surrounding market and evaluate whether Mr. Byun Baekhyun has income and the ability to repay.”
PD Notebook capture
Regarding this abnormal inflation of jeonse deposits, Lee Seung-gi revealed the absurd situation he experienced firsthand. He told the PD Notebook production team, “When I was first urged to sign a jeonse contract, the deposit amount that had been discussed later went up several times by the time the actual contract was signed,” adding, “It really made no sense, so I asked the reason, and they explained that, after an appraisal, it was worth KRW 16.0 billion.”
In addition, circumstances emerged that contradicted the claim by Chairman Cha that he had covered the large loan interest payments. Chairman Cha asserted, “Up to now, the interest for our artists, which amounts to several hundred million won each month, I have been paying for the past three years.” However, PD Notebook reporting found that the loan interest had been paid not with the personal funds of Chairman Cha but with the agency corporate funds, and that for several months even this had been borne directly by the entertainers.
An expert who appeared on the program called this distorted structure “a typical jeonse scam method” and said, “They jack up the jeonse price as much as possible, rent it out on jeonse, and say they will pay the interest. They even provide guarantees, arrange all the loans, and pay the interest, which sounds great for the tenant, right? Many tenants moved into such homes and ended up getting scammed,” strongly pointing to its similarity to jeonse fraud methods that exploit so-called zero-capital gap investment.
After the broadcast, an attorney for the side of Chairman Cha told SPOTV News regarding the issue of the villa loans, “In the case of Lee Seung-gi, it seems he is mistaken. We contacted the attorney for Lee Seung-gi regarding this matter to offer a chance to correct it, and we are waiting for a response.”
Regarding the ‘PD Notebook’ broadcast, the side of Chairman Cha filed for an injunction to ban the airing, stating, “Aside from the formal interview, the scenes of us sitting at a table and talking were clearly secret filming (hidden camera), and the audio was also an illegal recording. We were infringed upon in our rights to name, portrait, and voice.” However, this injunction request was dismissed right before the broadcast.
