Cha Ga-won, the head of One Hundred, who faces fraud allegations totaling 30 billion won, has been arrested. Cha is accused of running the talent agency One Hundred, taking advance payments from another company, and failing to carry out the project.
On the 3rd, Presiding Judge Budongsik, the warrant-only Director General at the Seoul Central District Court, held a pretrial detention hearing for Cha, who is suspected of fraud under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes, and issued an arrest warrant, saying there was a concern about destruction of evidence.
Police believe Cha proposed to Knowmerce(473980), which conducts businesses such as performances and merchandise using celebrities' intellectual property (IP), that it carry out a project using the IP of celebrities affiliated with his company, received 24.2 billion won in advance payments, and then failed to perform.
They also determined that although a prior contract Cha had with another company did not appear likely to end, he concealed this from Knowmerce and signed a double contract, and that he was not prepared to carry out the project. In addition, they found indications that Cha started the business while carrying a large amount of debt and rolled over the debt by splitting up contracts.
After the 2-hour-and-40-minute substantive warrant review ended that day, Cha did not answer questions such as "What did you explain?" as he left the courthouse. However, Cha denies all the allegations against him.
Police determined that Cha's detention was necessary and twice sought an arrest warrant earlier, but prosecutors sent it back requesting supplementary investigation. Only after additional investigations, including tracing Cha's accounts and analyzing contractual relationships, in consultation with prosecutors, was the arrest warrant request made.