Paik Jong-won and The Born Korea have once again been cleared of suspicion.
On the 20th, industry sources said the special judicial police of the Special Investigation Division at Seoul Customs of the Korea Customs Service recently closed the case without indictment regarding allegations that Paik Jong-won and The Born Korea violated the Customs Act by partitioning the import of cooking equipment.
The allegation surfaced last August after Paik Jong-won's YouTube channel: a Turkish-budget cooking device appeared in a promotional video for the Yesan Beer Festival, and when Paik said, "the customs clearance process was complicated so I asked them to remove the electric motor and electrical components," an internet user raised the possibility of a Customs Act violation and filed a complaint.
However, The Born Korea explained that at the time of import the equipment did not have motors or electrical installations, and that separate equipment was installed and used domestically after customs clearance. Investigators accepted this and decided to close the case without indictment.
This is not the first time he has been cleared.
Last year, four allegations of violations of the Food Sanitation Act, raised for reasons such as using industrial metal cooking tools at local festivals and spraying juice from pesticide sprayer tanks, were all closed with no charges. Also, allegations of violating the origin labeling law by labeling some sold products as domestic despite using foreign ingredients led to the referral of staff members and the corporation to prosecutors, but a decision not to prosecute was made due to lack of intent.
In addition, allegations of violation of the origin labeling law related to an agricultural corporation jointly established by BTS member Jin and Paik Jong-won were earlier closed with no charges.
Amid this resolution, Paik Jong-won is also expanding his activities on broadcast. After once again proving his judging skills on the recently concluded Netflix Culinary Class Wars 2, he will move directly to his next project, the tvN variety show The Genius Paik 3.
The third season, subtitled "World rice business challenge The Genius Paik 3," wrapped filming in Lyon, France, last April and is being prepared for broadcast in February. The program documents the process of opening and running a restaurant in areas barren to Korean cuisine; season 1 was filmed in Morocco and Italy, and season 2 was filmed in Spain. Actor Yoon Si-yoon joins this season for the France challenge.
[photo] OSEN DB
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