Soccer player Hwang Hee-chan has been embroiled in an abuse-of-power controversy.
On the 12th, a media outlet reported allegations of abusive behavior by Hwang Hee-chan's family. Earlier, supercar protocol and rental company Bahana (UCK) had filed a complaint accusing Hwang Hee-chan's uncle, a person surnamed Hwang, and an associate surnamed Lee of fraud and joint coercion. Amid this, Bahana is claiming that the background of the complaint involved abusive acts by Hwang Hee-chan's family, causing a stir.
Bahana signed a 2024 vehicle protocol service contract with the private corporate entity BtheHC operated by Hwang Hee-chan's family. Under the contract, the party B (Bahana) would provide vehicle use services to party A (Hwang Hee-chan) in exchange for promotional services for B's offerings. Accordingly, Bahana provided a total of 22 protocol vehicles to Hwang Hee-chan's side. However, it is reported that during this process they also supported unofficial schedules such as travel, golf courses and funerals.
In particular, last May Hwang Hee-chan damaged the engine while driving a protocol vehicle, a Ferrari, and the Ferrari broke down on the north end of Yeongdong Bridge. Hwang is said to have requested Bahana to dispatch at 2 a.m., and reportedly left the scene abandoning the Ferrari, saying "friends have been waiting a long time." This would constitute a violation of the Road Traffic Act. In addition, in July last year, while driving the Ferrari he had a collision with a parked vehicle, and he again contacted Bahana to request handling of the situation.
Bahana said, "Even if we bear legal responsibility, we wanted to prevent the exposure of Hwang Hee-chan's personal information," and explained, "An estimate for carbon replacement and other work came to about 60 million won. The company handled it." Over the course of a year, Hwang Hee-chan reportedly received supercar services 13 times and caused more than 10 major and minor accidents, and Hwang Hee-jung, Hwang Hee-chan's sister and the agency's CEO, is also reported to have caused more than 10 accidents. However, they claim they have never taken responsibility for the accidents. Bahana said Hwang Hee-chan demanded protocol beyond what was in the contract, and that party A failed to properly fulfill contractual obligations, including promotional duties.
As the controversy spread, BtheHC released an official statement saying, "The reported abuse-of-power situations and the taking of free services are completely unfounded," and added, "We will actively pursue legal action to expose the truth and prevent recurrence against acts that maliciously report and publicize false information to exploit a star player's status and good deeds for economic gain and to defraud our company of its profits."
BtheHC said, "Bahana was the one that repeatedly broke trust first." Regarding the Ferrari system error that occurred on Yeongdong Bridge, they explained, "The arrival of the accident response vehicle was delayed, and after sufficient communication with CEO Kim, Hwang Hee-chan explained the circumstances and left the location," saying it was "an incident caused by failing to sufficiently explain vehicle precautions to the service recipient." They said Hwang tried to position the car against the shoulder for the safety of himself and the vehicle by operating it within the maximum distance the car could move even though it was not functioning normally.
Regarding responsibility for the accident, they rebutted, "After handling the accident scene, we apologized politely and said to let us know if there were any necessary details or compensations, but Bahana said, 'It's okay. We'll handle it,' and there was never any communication conveying follow-up processing or demands. Also, under the contract, the automobile insurance is to be taken out in party B's name and account and UCK said it would handle insurance processing, so there were no additional follow-up measures." They added that the reported conversations were "cherry-picked" and that they "plan to take legal action over the malicious reporting of false content."
BtheHC said, "Although we allowed the free use of Hwang Hee-chan's likeness for advertising and promotion in return for protocol services under the contract, Hwang Hee-chan and BtheHC, out of consideration and a desire to take care of the family, spent funds to provide meals and gifts," and argued, "Support for protocol services such as for Hwang Hee-chan's grandfather's funeral is explicitly stated in the contract as 'services provided to Hwang Hee-chan and immediate family and the agency,' so these are not unrelated free services or abuse-of-power situations."
BtheHC also alleged that Bahana, despite the formal contract having already ended and without an official model contract, attempted to execute a 'Hwang Hee-chan project' that had not been discussed or mentioned at all with Hwang Hee-chan or BtheHC, unlawfully used Hwang Hee-chan's likeness and name rights to solicit investments from shareholders, and failed to disclose that it had closed the business on March 31, 2025, while contracts between the parties were ongoing, arguing that these actions constitute contract breaches as well as fraud and deceptive acts.
Meanwhile, Hwang Hee-chan's sister Hwang Hee-jung is active as part of FC Gukdae Family on SBS's Shooting Stars. However, Shooting Stars is reportedly not having a separate discussion about Hwang Hee-jung's departure. In this regard, an SBS official told OSEN, "We are checking the related details."
[photo] OSEN DB, SBS
[OSEN]